Jaspal Rana BJP's candidate from Uttarakhand

KT NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI: The 32-year old Jaspal Rana, India's shooting sensation winning two golds in 1994 Asian Games and another gold in Doha Asian Games in 2006, is the Bhartiya Janata Party's candidate for the Tehri seat in Uttarakhand in the Lok Sabha elections.

His place of birth being Uttarkashi weighed in the selection by the BJP's central election committee (CEC) that cleared names of total 23 candidates on Thursday, 16 in West Bengal, four in Uttarakhand and one each in Goa and Andaman & Nicobar.

Accepting reluctance of former Goa Chief Minister and now Opposition leader Manohar Parrikar to enter the Lok Sabha fray, the CEC decided to field Narendra Sawaikar for the South Goa (Mormugao) seat which is now held by Francisco Sardinha of Congress.

The party had earlier declared former union minister and sitting MP Sripad Naik for the North Goa seat.

The BJP had to adjourn the CEC meeting for the evening to consider more candidates to let its prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani hold a session with the BJP and other NDA chief ministers for inputs on the political situation in their states.

On Wednesday, the party had announced 16 candidates, including 12 from Uttar Pradesh.