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National

A setback for BJP

Special Correspondent

JAIPUR: In what could be explained as a fall-out of the first list of 12 candidates released two days ago by the BJP for Rajasthan, its district president of Nagaur, Shyam Sundar Kabra, announced on Saturday his decision to quit as a primary member of the party.

Mr. Kabra, who had been one of the aspirants for the ticket from Nagaur, took the step protesting against party nomination to Bindu Choudhary, a former Congresswoman.

Talking to journalists here, Mr. Kabra, who had unsuccessfully fought the election from Nagaur on BJP ticket in the past, blamed former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for “handing” over the ticket to a “non-BJP” person. “It was Ms. Raje’s insistence that the party ticket be given to a Jat.”

Mr. Kabra said he would take a decision on his future course of action after consulting his supporters in Nagaur.

Trouble was brewing elsewhere for the party when its workers started a whisper campaign against the nomination of an RSS worker and former official of the State’s Public Works Department, Shyam Sunder, for the Kota Lok Sabha seat, presently held by former State BJP president Raghuveer Singh Kaushal.

“When will the party workers and the youth get their due if the party goes for those who serve in the Government for two-three decades and had a good time are nominated?” asked Mahesh Vijayvargia, former district president of Kota.

Mr. Vijayvargia has written to senior party leaders L.K. Advani, Rajnath Singh, Ms. Raje and the State BJP president Omprakash Mathur in this regard. “By nominating Mr. Shyam Sunder the seat has been virtually handed over to the Congress,” he wrote.

The RSS and the Hindu Jagran Manch had opposed the BJP candidates in some of the Assembly constituencies in the Kota region during the recent elections. For some of the seats they had even put up parallel candidates. “I don’t know Shyam Sundar as a BJP worker. Yet as the party has nominated him we would accept it,” said Bhawani Singh Rajawat, a close Raje ally and victim of the RSS non-cooperation with the BJP during the current polls.

Reports from Bikaner said the functionaries of the district Scheduled Caste Morcha of the BJP are vocal expressing their displeasure over the nomination of Arjun Meghwal, a former civil servant, for the Bikaner Lok Sabha seat.

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