New Delhi, Nov 12: The Bharatiya Janata Party today decided not to field any of its Chief Ministerial candidates in the newly created tribal dominated Chhattisgarh state, while renominating 21 sitting MLAs including leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Nand Kumar Sai, among the 72 nominees announced today. Chhatisgarh BJP Chief Raman Singh conceded that the party had decided that neither he nor Union Ministers of State Dilip Singh Judev and Ramesh Bais would be in the fray. Their names were doing rounds as possible candidates for the chief minister's post.

This would help them concentrate in the campaign in the entire state. Sai will be contesting Tapkara-ST seat while 27 other ST candidates have been given tickets to contest the polls. Two of them will be contesting from general seats, BJP Spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told newspersons.

They also ruled out the possibility of reaching an understanding with the Nationalist Congress Party.

The Central Election Committee of the BJP during the last three days had finalised the names of 369 of the 590 candidates in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi. Bureau Report