BJP denies Jaswant Singh the Barmer ticket for Lok Sabha polls

NEW DELHI: Not bowing to down to the senior leader's wishes, BJP on Friday denied Jaswant Singh a ticket from Barmer in Rajasthan for the Lok Sabha polls. Singh is reported to have given BJP an ultimatum that he will contest as an independent candidate if he is not given the Barmer ticket.

However, BJP in its latest list of candidates for Lok Sabha polls has decided to field Colonel Sonaram Choudhary from the Barmer constituency.

There were indications that Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje wanted Jat leader Colonel Sonaram, who quit Congress to join BJP, to be fielded from there.

Sources said Singh has spoken to party President Rajnath Singh, expressing his desire to contest his "last" election from Barmer, the candidate for which has not been announced yet.

"He has said that he is anguished that his name has not been announced yet," a party leader said.

Singh's son Manavendra is a BJP MLA from Rajasthan. Raje was not keen on Jaswant Singh as she believes Sonaram, who has won Lok Sabha elections from there a few times, will be a better candidate from the constituency while the senior BJP leader has not been very active in the state.

Party Spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman played down reports of Jaswant's threat, saying party leaders have aspirations at the time of elections and there is nothing wrong about it.

Singh had contested and won the last election from Darjeeling. In recent comments, he has said he wanted to fight what could be his last election from his hometown