Thakre, known for his antipathy for the saffron-clothed minister, reportedly tried every trick up his sleeve to ensure that Uma contested - if she really did - from Khajuraho only. She had earlier opted out of the fray on health grounds even after her candidature had been announced by the party.

Internal bickering within the BJP, also prevented the party from deciding the name of its candidate from Khajuraho though they had earlier announced that a decision would be taken by 5 pm today.

Thakre wanted to field veteran BJP leader Kailash Joshi from Bhopal. Though Joshi's name was not officially announced by the party, Thakre supporters leaked itto the Bhopal media a few days back. Interestingly, Joshi has all along, been crossing swords with Thakre and patched up only this time.

Thakre is learnt to have made sure that BJP candidates from Madhya Pradesh were decided during the first and second meetings of party's Central Election Committee and that the names of Uma Bharti for Khajuraho and Jayshree Banerjee for Jabalpur were included. Uma apparently wanted to shift to Jabalpur and finding her close ally Banerjee's name from there, she decided to opt out of the fray.

Efforts in persuading Uma to reconsider her decision proved futile. She however, made it known to the party top brass that she could review her decision if she was offered a ticket from Bhopal.

The BJP chief however, refused to see any reason in arguments presented by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani at the BJP's CEC meet to field Uma from Bhopal against the Congress heavyweight, Suresh Pachauri since she was the only candidate who could posean effective threat to him.

Failing in their efforts to pacify Thakre, the top BJP brass then concentrated on persuading Kailash Joshi to opt out of election to which the latter agreed with a little reluctance. This made the BJP (Thakre) nominate Uma Bharti from Bhopal.

It was also left to Uma Bharti to name her replacement from Khajuraho and make it known to both Thakre and party general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu by this evening. However, Thakre was so incensed with Uma that a meaningful discussion could not take place between the two, party sources said.

The BJP also changed its candidate from Pune by replacing Anna Joshi with Pradeep Rawat. The party has made Anoop Mukherjee its candidate from Burdwan in West Bengal, Naidu said.