New Delhi:
He claims he has worked with the Beatles and Deepak Chopra. But in the last one week, Anshuman Mishra, a 37-year-old businessman from London, has accomplished a rare feat - he has united the senior-most leaders of the BJP. From LK Advani to Sushma Swaraj, they all agreed that the entrepreneur's background and his status as an "outsider" in Jharkhand make him an unsuitable candidate.
On NDTV today Mr Mishra said it was just as well that he was pulling out of the race, otherwise in the very least he would have gone bald. "I will never contest another Rajya Sabha elections. I have lost so much hair in the last 10 days that I fear I will go bald if I contest," he said.
Mr Mishra claims he was offered a Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh by BJP president Nitin Gadkari and senior leader Rajnath Singh, about 9 months ago, but he had refused after consultations with BJP's leaders, including state unit president Kalraj Mishra.
Asked how he had been given the nod ahead of the BJP's Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha, SS Ahluwalia, Anshuman Mishra sought refuge in numbers, "The BJP contested with 18 MLAs from this state and got 16 votes. Its not as if I have taken away something from Mr Ahluwalia. He refused."
The BJP has 18 MLAs in Jharkhand Assembly. The arithmetic is such that 27 MLAs have to support a candidate for him to win a Rajya Sabha seat from the state. Mr Mishra says he had the numbers, and would've won even if the BJP abstained, because that would bring down the effective numbers needed to win a seat.