BJP leader RK Sinha at the party’s national executive meet in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, March 20: Senior BJP leader and business tycoon R.K. Sinha today revealed he was not allowed to file nomination papers for Rajya Sabha polls despite national BJP president Nitin Gadkari clearing his candidature.

Sinha said it is a “matter of research” as to how and under what circumstances the party surrendered when the BJP high command gave a go-ahead to him to file the nomination papers for the third seat.

“I went to meet the party national president, Nitin Gadkari, who asked me to file nomination papers for the Upper House. When I inquired about the allotment of the party symbol for filing nomination papers, Gadkari told me that the symbol has been sent through the state party president C.P. Thakur,” Sinha told reporters.

Sinha, the chairman-cum-managing director of SIS, the country’s largest security service provider, said: “I had made all preparations for filing nomination papers but suddenly, things unfolded in such a manner that I had to backtrack from my earlier decision to save the coalition.”

Stating that he never claimed a Rajya Sabha berth, Sinha, a national executive member, said road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav called him up at 12.40pm on Monday, saying that the state party president wanted to talk to him.

“Thakur told me that the alliance might break if I file nomination papers. So I assured him that there would not be any danger to the alliance. I am not going to file nomination,” he added.

Sinha, however, clarified that he was not going to leave the party, as he would remain in the party to cleanse it.