New Delhi, June 26: The BJP is keeping aloof from the nuclear frenzy and is focusing all its energies on preparing for the next general elections.

The party today avoided responding to tangible indications from the government that it was going to atomic watchdog IAEA despite the Left’s opposition. Instead, it held a meeting of its central election committee to demonstrate its readiness for the coming battle.

Sources said the BJP leadership wanted to show that it had started the electoral process ahead of the others and, therefore, even announced six names — whose candidature was anyway certain — after the election committee meeting.

The token announcement was surprising but important, the sources said, as the party wanted to send the message that it had already started its fight against the Congress.

The candidates whose names were announced were Lal Krishna Advani from Gandhinagar, Navjot Singh Sidhu from Amritsar, Vinod Khanna from Gurdaspur, Sripad Naik from Goa, G.P.S. Rawat from Garhwal and Anurag Thakur from Hamirpur.

The BJP’s election management committee has been working on identifying candidates for around three months now. So the announcement of only six names in the first list also revealed the party’s indecision.

However, senior party leader M. Venkaiah Naidu said after the meeting that all the candidates would be finalised by August-end.

“States have been asked to send their recommendations by July-end. The central election committee will meet again on July 11 to review the situation,” Naidu said.

Naidu said the party had decided to hold from next month conventions of booth-level workers in 297 seats where it has chances of winning.

The party will also restart its Vijay Sankalp rallies, abandoned in February after warnings that they could be targeted by militants. Advani will address the first in Kanpur tomorrow.