PTI 
       
NEW DELHI, Oct 6: Varun Gandhi's plans to enter Parliament through the by-election in Vidisha from Madhya Pradesh were dashed on Friday when BJP decided to give the ticket to a Madhya Pradesh minister overlooking the claims of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for his wife.

The party also decided to give former union minister Shahnawaz Hussain the ticket from Bihar's Bhagalpur Lok Sabha constituency where Muslims are believed to have considerable clout.

The decisions were taken at a meeting of the party Central Election Committee attended among others by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and party leaders L K Advani and Rajnath Singh.

Madhya Pradesh Public Health Engineering Rampal Singh is the BJP candidate for Vidisha, a saffron stronghold which had once elected Vajpayee.

Varun, the 27-year-old son of party MP Maneka Gandhi, was believed to have the backing of Vajpayee and Advani but faced strong resentment in the state party unit, a strong reason why the central leadership decided against fielding him.

Chouhan, who had won the seat which he resigned after becoming Chief Minister November last year, tried his luck to get the ticket for his wife which also did not find favour of the party bosses.

The Election Committee named journalist Pranav Kumar Verma, son of former MP R L P Verma, as its candidate for the Koderma Lok Sabha seat in Jharkhand vacated by former chief minister Babulal Marandi after he quit the BJP.

It also decided to field Kapoor Chand from Bada Malhera assembly constituency in MP from where rebel leader Uma Bharti had resigned and Sahdev Khake from Talsara assembly seat in Orissa.