MUMBAI, July 26: The Bharatiya Janata Party has rejected requests by film star-turned-politician Vinod Khanna and television actor Nitish Bharadwaj to be fielded as the party's candidates from Mumbai for the Lok Sabha elections.The State Election Committee has decided to field local candidates instead, a senior BJP leader told The Indian Express.Khanna, a member of the dissolved Lok Sabha, was elected from Gurudaspur in Punjab. Bharadwaj did not contest the 1998 polls.The BJP leader said Union Law Minister and Rajya Sabha member Ram Jethmalani had also expressed a desire to contest from Mumbai, but had not made a formal request to the party. ``Apparently, he was keen to contest as an Independent candidate with the support of BJP and Shiv Sena,'' he said. The BJP leader said it would be difficult to field any of the three from Mumbai.``Out of the six seats (in Mumbai), we have been allotted three seats - South, North-West and North - the remaining going to the Shiv Sena,'' he said.``There isno question of leaving North (for the three) since sitting MP Ram Naik will be renominated,'' he added. ``As far as South and North-West are concerned, the party feels it can't leave these seats for Khanna, Bharadwaj or Jethmalani.''For South Mumbai, the party is looking at Minister of State for Housing Raj Purohit or Jaywantiben Mehta, while BJP city unit president Kirit Somaiyya and Minister for Excise and Prohibition Prakash Mehta have evinced interest in the North-West constituency.The final list of candidates known by August 2, the BJP leader added.Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena-BJP Coordination Committee, which met today agreed to exchange with its alliance partner four seats for the Lok Sabha and 15 for the Assembly. In the last Lok Sabha elections, Shiv Sena nominees had contested from Ramtek in Nagpur district and Ahmadnagar, while the BJP had fielded nominees from Yeotmal and Kopargaon in Ahmadnagar district.``We have agreed to exchange these seats,'' a Sena minister said.
