While Sushma Swaraj is playing hard to get, the others -- Sahib Singh Verma and Madan Lal Khurana -- are going full steam ahead, confident that they will secure tickets in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Though the dates for the September elections are yet to be notified, a picture of some of the key BJP candidates is beginning to emerge.

Swaraj says she has told the party high command in clear terms that she is not willing to contest. ``I am not interested because of personal reasons,'' she said. She, however, added that the party is keen that she contest.

She was made chief minister amidst the controversy that followed Verma's resignation in October last year. Khurana, cleared of charges in the hawala case and hoping to be the natural successor, did not find favour with the party high command.

According to sources,Verma has already been asked to contest from his stronghold -- the Outer Delhi constituency. ``I have started organising my party workers at the lowest level. The old workers get together and go to the 200-300 houses in the area,'' he said. He holds as many as four to five meetings with his party workers everyday.

Verma had been promised a ministerial berth in the Cabinet after being removed from the post of chief minister, but the promise was not kept. ``I was told there would be an expansion, but before that could materialise, the Government fell,'' said Verma.

Therefore, since that promise was never kept, he is one of the few in the party sure of getting a ticket from Outer Delhi. The sitting Member of Parliament from the area, K L Sharma, has now to find an alternative. ``This has only been made possible because of my good relations with Sharma,'' said Sahib Singh. The point that could work in his favour is that Verma was instrumental in ensuring Sharma's victory the last time around.

Outer Delhi isone of the biggest constituencies -- it has nearly 30 lakh voters and as many as 700 unauthorised colonies. Verma, with his populist measures to provide land, water and electricity to these unauthorised colonies, has won the support of the 10 lakh voters in these colonies.

Although 16 out of the 21 Assembly seats are with the Congress, Verma is unfazed. ``The present Chief minister is good for our party because she is a stranger to these villages, resettlement colonies and jhuggi clusters,'' he says.

According to party sources, Khurana has also been assured of a seat from his stronghold -- Sadar. He has already become ``active'', commenting on policies and actions of the Congress Government. ``I have started making the rounds of my constituency,'' he said. As an afterthought, he says he has been doing this for the last 25 years. His popularity with traders and shopkeepers has made him one of the BJP's strongest bets.

Cleared in the hawala case, he knows this is his chance to stage a comeback. Hecalled a couple of press conferences at his residence, much before the others had woken up to the approaching elections. Although he holds a ministerial berth, he has made it very clear that Delhi is his main interest.