Gujarat BJP gearing up for by-elections

Gujarat BJP will soon start the process of selection of panels of probable candidates for the by-polls in Vadodara Lok Sabha constituency and nine Assembly constituencies in the state.
To prepare panels, a team of BJP leaders will hold meetings with local leaders and party workers.
"From August 20 to 22, our leaders will hear out the representations of each probable candidate and their supporters before finalising panel of probables. This list will be then handed over to the state parliamentary board for review," said Gujarat BJP's media convener Harshad Patel.
"The state parliamentary board will hold a meeting after August 22. Later, the list of candidates will be sent to the central parliamentary board in Delhi, which will announce the final list," said Patel.

By-polls will be held on September 13. In assembly constituencies, vacancies were created when sitting BJP MLAs got elected to Lok Sabha. These seats are: Anand, Limkheda (Dahod), Deesa (Banaskantha), Matar (Kheda), Maninagar (Ahmedabad), Talaja (Bhavnagar), Tankara (Rajkot), Khambhalia (Jamnagar) and Mangrol (Junagadh).
The Vadodara Lok Sabha seat fell vacant after Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to retain Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. As a sitting MLA, he also vacated Maninagar assembly seat.
Leaders including state BJP general secretaries Bhikhu Dalsania, Purushottam Rupala, Vijay Rupani, state BJP chief R C Faldu and state BJP in-charge Om Mathur among others are involved in ground-work for the polls, Patel said.