Its Vidisha for Sushma,BJP panels in place

Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj will contest from the Vidisha Lok Sabha seat,which had been represented by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the past.

Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj will contest from the Vidisha Lok Sabha seat,which had been represented by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the past. The BJP also released the names of 45 other candidates on Thursday.

Sushma was initially slated to contest from Bhopal but an unrelenting Kailash Joshi,the sitting party MP from the seat,forced the party leadership to do a rethink. Joshi will now get to contest from Bhopal.

The latest BJP list named 12 candidates each for Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and 11 each for Karnataka and Chhattisgarh,taking the total to 166.

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The BJP,which has missed no opportunity to attack dynastic rule in the Congress,announced the names of Karnataka CM B S Yeddyurappas son B Y Raghvendra from Shimoga,besides renominating Vasundhara Rajes son Dushyant Singh from Jhalawar and Jaswant Singhs son Manvendra Singh from Barmer. Sumitra Mahajan (Indore) and Dilip Singh Judeo (Bilaspur),Laxman Singh (Raghogarh) and Rajes sister Yashodara (Gwalior) were among others on the list.

The BJP also discussed various election-related panels,which will report to party general secretary Arun Jaitley. A think-tank of Sudheendra Kulkarni,columnist Swapan Dasgupta,party vice-president Bal Apte and others like Tarun Vijay will come up with issues for the election. L K Advanis aide Deepak Chopra will also chip in to ensure proper coordination in the partys campaign.

The BJP also discussed the induction of four more spokespersons at the meeting. The Pioneer editor-in-chief Chandan Mitra,Rajya Sabha members Balbir Punj and S S Ahluwalia and Jaitley aide Sidharth Nath Singh have been roped in as the new spokespersons. Mitra,whos handling the partys tie-up with partners like BJD in Orissa,is unlikely to accept the offer.