In a major surprise, the BJP’s deputy leader in the upper house and a senior parliamentary strategist, S S Ahluwalia, was denied re-nomination to the Rajya Sabha today, with the reason that he could not be fielded from Jharkhand as the party was not confident of a win. The scope of a possible renomination from Bihar, as a third candidate with surplus votes from ally JD(U) also did not work out, after the latter refused to give in and fielded former minister Vashist Narain Singh.