The Bharatiya Janata Party has denied a Rajya Sabha ticket to popular actor Shatrughan Sinha. Instead, the party accommodated former health minister Dr C P Thakur.
"The party has decided that popular leaders should be saved for the party campaign in the Lok Sabha elections," Anant Kumar told reporters when asked why Sinha was denied a nomination.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chauhan delivered the list of their candidates to the election committee.
Party top leaders L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Jaswant Singh, M Venkaiah Naidu attended the meeting.
The candidates are: Shanta Kumar (Himachal Pradesh), Balbir Punj (Orissa), Prakash Javdekar (Maharashtra), Shiv Pratap Singh (Chhattisgarh), C P Thakur (Bihar), Jaiprakash Narayan Singh (Jharkhand), Maya Singh, Raghunandan Sharma, Prabhat Jha (all Madhya Pradesh), Om Mathur, Gyan Prakash Pilania (both Rajasthan), Purshottam Rupala, Bharatsinh Parma, Nathuji Khalaji Thakur (all Gujarat).
The party's decision to field Rupala, state unit president of Gujarat and omission of staunch Chief Minister Narendra Modi detractor Patel is seen as an indication of Modi's increasing clout in the party.
The party is in a position to win 13 out of the 56 seats going to polls on April 26 -- three each from Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, two from Rajasthan and one from Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand and Bihar.
(With PTI inputs)
