Date:28/03/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/03/28/stories/2004032806280800.htm

National

Dharmendra, BJP candidate for Bikaner

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 27. Dharmendra, Bollywood star of yore, has been selected as the BJP's candidate for Bikaner, Rajasthan, while the party's other candidates from the State are Santosh Ahlawat (Jhunjhunu), Baba Mahant Nath (Alwar) and Vishwandra Singh (Bharatpur).

Apart from Amethi and Rae Bareli, the BJP also declared candidates for seven other seats from Uttar Pradesh. A BJP candidate, Bharat Lal Rahi Kushwaha, will contest from Ghosi, a seat earlier expected to be given to the Janata Dal (United), which has been given Salempur instead. In Phulpur, the BJP candidate will be Beni Madhav Bind and in Pratapgarh, Rama Shankar Singh. Other candidates are Shah Mohammed (Azamgarh), Sashi Kant Rajbhar (Chandauli), Chowdhary Paragi Lal (Misrikh) and Satyadev Pachouri (Kanpur). With these candidates, the party's selection process for Uttar Pradesh, where it is contesting 77 seats, has been completed.

In Andhra Pradesh, two candidates were declared today: the sitting MP from Tirupati, N. Venkataswamy, has been nominated again, and in Nalgonda, Indrasen Reddy will be the party candidate. In Karnataka, Manjunath Kunnur will contest from Dharwad-South. In both these States, two candidates each remain to be selected.

In Himachal, the ticket for the lone remaining seat, Shimla, has been given to Hira Nand Kashyap. In Haryana, the party has declared all the five MPs of the dissolved Lok Sabha as its candidates: I.D. Swamy (Karnal), Rattan Lal Kataria (Ambala), Kishan Singh Sangwan (Sonepat), Ramchander Bainda (Faridabad) and Sudha Yadav (Mahendragarh). A senior party leader has indicated that the BJP was still "talking to'' the Haryana Vikas Party of Bansilal, and is therefore holding in abeyance the remaining five seats.

The BJP had 182 MPs in the dissolved Lok Sabha and it has re-nominated 159 sitting MPs while 23 have been denied a ticket. The party is still toying with the idea of giving the Amritsar seat to cricketer, Navjot Singh Sidhu, while for the Hyderabad seat it could consider the Telugu actress, Vijay Shanti.