Shatrughan

New Delhi, Nov. 29: The BJP has spiked the move to project Shatrughan Sinha as its chief ministerial candidate during campaigning for the Bihar elections.

?We will fight as an alliance (with the Janata Dal United). Unless the alliance comes to a conclusion, no one will be projected. All this is in the realm of speculation,? BJP spokesperson Yashwant Sinha, reportedly among those who had sponsored Shatrughan?s candidacy, clarified today in a press briefing.

Sources said Shatrughan was propped up after Bihar BJP president Gopal Narain Singh proposed at the Ranchi national executive meeting that the former actor be made the star campaigner and asked to lead a ?yatra? to be kicked off from Bettiah from where Mahatma Gandhi had launched his protest against indigo cultivation.

News of this plan was leaked to some reporters in Ranchi and the former minister was asked if leading the ?yatra? was a prelude to being projected as the prospective chief minister.

The actor is said to have replied: ?I have been a health minister and a wealth minister, so why can?t I become a chief minister?? He went on to say that a chief minister?s job was nothing ?extraordinary?.

However, according to the sources, the BJP?s backward castes supporters were up in arms over an upper caste Kayastha being the leader in the fight against Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav.

The sources rejected the suggestion that Shatrughan?s image as a Bihari babu with an appeal that supposedly transcends caste barriers would bring in the votes of several social groupings. ?It is a myth perpetuated by his supporters. In reality, everything boils down to caste,? said a source.

It would be wiser, the sources said, to choose someone like former Union minister C.P. Thakur if the BJP seeks to regroup the votes of the Brahmins, Bhumihars, Banias, Rajputs and Kayasthas and project a leader from among them.

The Bihar BJP is also in a dilemma over how to handle Ram Vilas Paswan. The Lok Janshakti Party chief?s relations with Laloo Prasad have hit rock bottom.