BJP to give the go-by to Rajya Sabha bigwigs in polls

All the top BJP strategists, who are the members of the Rajya Sabha, have been dissuaded from contesting the coming Lok Sabha elections on the apprehension that it would deplete the party's strength in the Upper House.

This implies that an array of top policy planners of the government "" finance minister Jaswant Singh, disinvestment minister Arun Shourie, agriculture minister Rajnath Singh, health minister Sushma Swaraj and information minister Ravi Shankar Prasad "" would be out of race in this election.

Obviously, some of these leaders were keen to contest the elections in order to position themselves as people's leaders, a tag which consolidates their political position.

There was much speculation about Jaswant Singh joining the electoral fray from Chittorgarh which he won in 1991.

The fact that the Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje has denied her son Dushyant's nomination from Jhalawar on the grounds that "he is too involved in his family to participate in politics" indicates that this is another seat that others could have sought.

However, the fact that Singh's son Manavendra is contesting from Barmer is the most important factor in denying the seat to the finance minister.

Singh's major handicap in the current political context is that he is a Rajya Sabha member. With Singh's deft handling of the foreign affairs and later the finance ministry, his career graph and acceptability have moved upwards within the BJP. But his image of a back-room boy, away from the mass politics, is believed to be a setback for his claim for the undisputed Number Three position in the party's hierarchy.

Similarly, law minister Arun Jaitley is said to be keen to shed his image of a politician who shuns elections. Given his background as a leader of the ABVP, Jaitley will be keen to prove his mettle if fielded from any safe constituency in Delhi or Gujarat. But BJP sources say he has been told to concentrate on planning and strategising as he had successfully done in Madhya Pradesh.

Rajnath Singh is learnt to have sent feelers to the central leadership conveying that he will not be averse to fighting the elections from safe constituencies, presumably Thakur-dominated seats.

There were indications that Ravi Shankar Prasad did nurse the ambition of contesting to the Lok Sabha from Patna.

Prasad's logic was woven around the fact that the Patna seat would be a difficult proposition for the Union minister for small industries C P Thakur.

The party's Bihar unit leadership is learnt to have advised against any change in Patna as it might have a serious fallout in the constituency.