Friday, February 11 2005 20:29 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Cine star and senior BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) leader Shatrughan Sinha has said NDA (National Democratic Alliance) should have projected its Chief Ministerial candidate in the run up to Bihar Assembly polls and he was denied the responsibility of spearheading the party campaign in the State.

"In my opinion, I have often said that this announcement of (who will be NDA Chief Minister) should have been made. When you are saying that Laloo should be removed, you need to also tell the voters who you want to bring in," Sinha told NDTV 24X7.

"When (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee went to Haryana (for campaign) a few days ago, he had asked why Congress was not announcing who will be its Chief Minister. In Lok Sabha polls, the party had said our candidate for Prime Ministership is Vajpayee and asked Congress who was theirs," he said.

Asked if he wanted a consensus among NDA allies on his projection as Chief Ministerial candidate, Sinha said "not me, if I say so it will be construed that I was dying for the post. But it was not so."

He said the post of Chief Minister did not enamour him as "the post is a crown of thorns and not of flowers".

On whether he could have been assigned the task of leading BJP campaign in Bihar, Sinha said he was ready for it.

"I have been in politics for so long having, sacrificed family and business interests. I have handled two important portfolios. Do you think I could not have been equal to this task? I could have been definitely. But this did not happen."

However, he denied being sore over not being asked by party leadership to shoulder the responsibility.