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Uma forces BJP to shift her from Khajuraho

Bowing to pressures from within the party, the Bharatiya Janata Party today changed its candidates for Khajuraho (MP) and Pune Lok Sabha constituencies.

Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs, Uma Bharti, who was reluctant to seek re-election for the third time from Khajuraho, will be the BJP's candidate from Bhopal, and Pradeep Rawat will contest in place of the veteran BJP leader and senior parliamentarian Anna Joshi from Pune, party spokesman M Venkaih Naidu told reporters in Delhi today.

Rawat, president of the BJP's Pune unit, had resigned from his post in protest against the selection of Joshi for the party ticket, despite the party's Maharashtra unit recommending his name for the Pune seat. Bharti was named the BJP's candidate by the party's central election committee last week, but she refused the offer, notwithstanding threats by some of her followers that they would commit suicide if her candidature was changed.

Ultimately, Bharti, who is supposed to be close to Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and party president Kushabhau Thakre, had her say, forcing the party high command to shift her from Khajuraho to Bhopal.

Naidu said a new candidate will be nominated for Khajuraho.

Besides, candidates for Rajgarh and three seats in Assam are to be finalised, he said.

He said the BJP has nominated Badal Bhattacharjee for the Asoknagar assembly by-election in West Bengal, while Anoop Mukherjee will be the party's candidate from Burdwan.

Naidu said Bellary was given to the Janata Dal-U-Lok Shakti under the seat-sharing agreement. However, since Sushma Swaraj is now contesting from there, the JD-U-Lok Shakti would be given another constituency which had been won by the BJP.

The BJP spokesman said his party would take up with the Election Commission its decision to disallow mediapersons from accompanying the prime minister in his aircraft during election campaigns. He said such a step was discriminatory.

UNI

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