The Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) spokesman, Girish Parmar, said his party had demanded for one-phase poll in the state in a bid to prevent bogus voting.

On his part, BJP state president Purshottam Rupala said: “It is a festival of democracy and the BJP workers are keen to celebrate it. The BJP will contest all the 26 seats in the state.”

He added: “The parliamentary board of state BJP has already discussed the names of candidates for all the 26 constituencies in the state. The BJP has already declared the name of its prime ministerial candidate, L K Advani from the Gandhinagar parliamentary constituency.”

The GPCC, meanwhile, is still in the process of finalising the names of the panel for the 26 constituencies.

Congress leaders said they may drop four sitting MPs due to opposition from their respective constituencies.

In the outgoing Lok Sabha, the BJP and the Congress have a strength of 14 and 12 seats, respectively.

This time, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) wants a seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress in Gujarat and wants three seats in the state, said Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.

If materialised, it will be the first-ever seat-sharing arrangement between the NCP and the Congress for the parliamentary elections in Gujarat.