All of the Bradford district's main political parties have now selected their candidates for the expected General Election.

Tony Blair has been widely-tipped to call a May 5 poll on Monday, and the opposition parties have been making last minute appointments in the district's five constituencies.

All of Labour's Bradford MPs will be defending their seats, including Bradford West's Marsha Singh recently at the centre of allegations he made lewd remarks in the House of Commons.

Among his opponents will be the recently reinstated Conservative candidate Haroon Rashid. The party suspended him after allegations of voting irregularities at his selection meeting. The party stressed the suspension was to enable an inquiry to be carried out and Mr Rashid always denied the claims.

One of the district's most closely fought seats is expected to be the Shipley constituency where Labour's Chris Leslie will be trying to cling on to his slim 1,428 majority.

The Minister for Constitutional Affairs will go into battle against the two traditional parties, a Green member, the far right British National Party and an anti-war independent candidate.

David Crabtree, a trained psychiatric nurse and manager of several nursing homes, from Bingley, has spent £150 to register a one-man political party "Iraq War: Not in my Name" and will pay a £500 deposit to take part in the election.

Another high profile battle is expected to take place in Keighley where BNP leader Nick Griffin is to stand against Labour's Ann Cryer who currently has a 4,005 majority in the seat she has held since 1997. Last year, following the BBC TV documentary Secret Agent, Mr Griffin was arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred, and his presence in Keighley is designed to get national media coverage.

Leader of the BNP group on Bradford Council, Councillor James Lewthwaite (BNP, Wyke), is also standing, this time in Bradford South against the Labour MP Gerry Sutcliffe.

Deputy leader of Bradford Council's Liberal Democrat group Councillor David Ward (Lib Dem, Idle and Thackley) is standing against Labour MP Terry Rooney. His group colleagues Councillor Mukhtar Ali (Lib Dem, Bowling and Barkerend) and John Briggs (Lib Dem, Baildon) are also standing in Bradford West and Shipley respectively.

The Green Party is contesting all three Bradford constituencies and also the Shipley constituency where it won all three ward seats in last year's Council elections.