Gandhinagar, March 25 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday announced its fifth list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, featuring six nominees from Gujarat.

According to the list, Hari Patel will contest from Mehsana; Shobhna Baraiya from Sabarkantha; Chandu Shihora from Surendranagar; Rajesh Chudasama from Junagadh; Bharat Sutariya from Amreli, and Hemang Joshi from Vadodara.

The contest in Mehsana seat is crucial as Nitin Patel, the former Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had announced his withdrawal from the race for the Mehsana Lok Sabha seat.

Earlier, Vadodara's sitting MP, Ranjan Bhatt, and Sabarkantha candidate Bhikaji Thakor exited the electoral fray citing personal reasons.

Their departures came a few days after the BJP confirmed their candidature.

Bhatt, facing her third Lok Sabha bid, cited "preserving self-respect" and the "wish to quell false allegations" as the reasons for her decision.