BJP fields Maj Gen Khanduri in Dhimapur byelection

New Delhi, Aug 2 (UNI) Uttranchal Chief Minister Maj Gen (retd) B C Khanduri will be the BJP's candidate for Dhimapur Assembly byelection, as the party today announced its candidates for byelections in UP, Jharkhand and for three of the five Graduate Constituencies.

The Central Election Committee which met under BJP party president Rajnath Singh here fielded Dr Dinesh Sarangi as the candidate for the Jamshedpur byelection in Jharkhand.

For the three bypolls in UP, it named Mr Shiv Bahadur (Suartanda), Mr Gulfam Singh Yadav (Gunnaur) and Mr Ram Bahadur Dube (Farukkhabad).

Mr Kedarnath Singh (Varanasi), Mr Vindhyavasani Kumar (Lucknow) and Mr Yagya Dutt Sharma (Allahabad) will be candidates for Graduate constituties, BJP General Secretary Anant Kumar told reporters after the meeting.

He said the Committee had authorised the party President to nominate the candidate for Balia Lok Sabha constituency, the bypoll to which has been postponed due to floods for the time being.

The seat fell vacant due to the death of the sitting member, former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar.

Before the CEC, the party's apex decision making body, Parliamentary Board also met under the chairmanship of Mr Singh where the developments in Goa were discussed in detail.

The Board was also apprised about the situation in Maharashtra in regard to the party's relationship with the Shiv Sena which had voted against the NDA candidate in Presidential election. Senior BJP leaders from the state including Gopinath Munde, briefed the board about the situation.

Denying that the Board discussed continuance of ties with the Shiv Sena, he said the Board was just apprised of the situation.

He also denied that political situations in Karnataka or Gujarat, where dissidence activities were still continuing, were discussed.

Earlier, a Goa Democratic Alliance delegation led by former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar met Home Minister Shivraj Patil here and apprised him about the manner the motion on trial of strength was conducted July 30. They urged the Home Minister that the UDA group, having 20 members, formed a majority in the assembly and should be called to form the government. The delegation also included the two MGP legislators who were debarred from partipating in the Confidence Motion.

Asked what was the response of the Home Minister, a BJP leader said that Mr Patil heard them patiently.

UNI