There were no surprises in the first list of candidates announced by the Congress for the Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, on Monday.

In the first list, the Congress announced the candidates for 13 constituencies, including the lone seat in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

The first list has candidates primarily from central and south Gujarat, and three from Kutch-Saurashtra, where the party is on a strong footing.

The four constituencies of Junagadh, Amreli, Jamnagar and Banaskantha have, however, not been mentioned, although the party had won them in the 2004 elections.

The four sitting MPs are likely to be dropped owing to opposition from the local party leaders or corruption charges.

The party is yet to announce candidates for the north Gujarat region, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and pockets of urban Saurashtra, where the BJP has an upper hand.

Barring Kutch, the party has repeated its candidates in all the 12 seats in Gujarat announced in the list.

In Kutch, the Congress has fielded Valji Danecha, a former MLA from the Mundra Assembly seat in the district, after it became reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the region was extended up to Morbi in Rajkot district in the recent delimitation exercise.

Eight of the 12 sitting MPs announced in the list include three Union ministers, Shankersinh Vaghela, Dinsha Patel and Naran Rathwa.

Vaghela will contest the polls from Panchmahals in central Gujarat where he has proved his mettle in the past.

His previous constituency of Kapadvanj now stands dissolved owing to delimitation.

Dr Prabha Taviad, Satyajit Gaekwad and Vitthal Radadiya, who lost the 2004 polls by a slim margin, have also been fielded.

From Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the party has fielded veteran tribal leader and several times MP Mohan Delkar. A champion of tribals, Delkar recently joined the party in the presence of Sonia Gandhi.