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RS Poll
BJP selects Advani loyalists Chandan Mitra, Tarun Vijay
Faraz Ahmad/ TNS

New Delhi, June 4
The BJP parliamentary board nominated here today Chandan Mitra, The Pioneer Editor, as their Rajya Sabha candidate from Madhya Pradesh and BJP spokesman Tarun Vijay for the lone seat falling in BJP’s quota from Uttarakhand. This demonstrated the undiminished clout of L.K. Advani.

The parliamentary board met under party president Nitin Gadkari. It rejected former Law and Justice Minister Ram Jethmalani’s written request for one of the two Rajya Sabha seats BJP can win on its strength in the state legislative assembly. The other went to Anil Madhav Dave, chosen by Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

In Rajasthan, the choice fell on former Bhilwara MP V.P. Singh. Even after this the party has a substantial number of surplus votes in the state assembly and is considering nominating Najma Heptullah for that. She too has a personal rapport with Advani’s family. Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley also favours her. The BJP is working on its ally in Punjab, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) to support the candidature of Delhi lawyer H.S. Phoolka, who has been fighting the 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases against Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar for so many years.

If the BJP can manage to pool in its surpluse votes with others in Karnataka, it may win a third seat there. It has already announced candidates for two seats from Karnataka in proportion to its numbers in the assembly. It is hoping for similar management in Jharkhand and for the third seat in Orissa, where it hopes to pool the surplus votes of the Congress and some independents. Formally, the parliamentary board has left it to the discretion of the president.