FILE photo: Senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh
It is turning out to be a scorcher of a Thursday for the BJP. LK Advani has not yet ceded to the party's request to run for Parliament from Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
(Read) Another veteran, Jaswant Singh, is also fighting the party line for a constituency in Rajasthan, say sources.
Mr Singh, 75, wants to contest the national election from Barmer. He has never represented it in the Lok Sabha, but has reportedly told the party that he wants to contest what is likely to be his last election, from the constituency where he was born. His family hails from Jasol, a village in Barmer.
Mr Singh has won Lok Sabha elections before from Chittorgarh in Rajasthan in 1991 and 1996, and from Darjeeling in West Bengal in 2009.
"Don't go looking for stories," said party spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman today, amid reports that Mr Singh has threatened to contest the election as an independent, if he is not declared the BJP's candidate from Barmer.
However, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje is allegedly keen to award Barmer to Col (Retd.) Sona Ram Choudhary, who defected to the BJP from the Congress earlier this week. The former Army officer has represented Barmer in Parliament earlier, but was defeated in the 2004 election by Mr Singh's son Manavendra, who is now a member of the state legislature.
The chief minister has told the party's top leaders that the retired colonel, who is a Jat, could be a big draw in Barmer. Jats are the dominant community in Barmer. Mr Singh, on the other hand, is a Thakur.
Sources close to Mr Singh, who was a cabinet minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government, say he is popular among the Muslim voters, who comprise some 14% of the electorate in Barmer.
In 2009, Mr Singh had won from Darjeeling in a pact with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, or the GJM, which agreed to back his candidacy in return for the BJP's promise to champion the "separate Gorkhaland" cause.