Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and cine star Shatrughan Sinha has said the National Democratic Alliance should have projected its chief ministerial candidate in the run up to Bihar assembly polls.
He has also complained that he has been denied the responsibility of spearheading the party campaign in the state.
"In my opinion, I have often said that this announcement (of who will be NDA chief minister) should have been made. When you are saying that Lalu should be removed, you need to also tell voters who you want to bring in," Sinha told NDTV 24X7.
"When (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee went to Haryana (for campaign) a few days ago, he had asked why the Congress was not announcing who will be its chief minister. In Lok Sabha polls, the party had said our candidate for prime ministership is Vajpayee and asked the Congress who theirs was," he said.
Asked if he wanted a consensus among NDA allies that he should be projected as the chief ministerial candidate, Sinha said "Not me. If I say so it will be construed that I was dying for the post. But it is not so."
He said the post of the chief minister did not enamour him as 'the post is a crown of thorns and not of flowers'.
On whether he could have been assigned the task of leading the BJP campaign in Bihar, Sinha said he was ready for it.
"I have been in politics for so long, having sacrificed family and business interests. I have handled two important portfolios. Do you think I could not have been equal to this task? I could have been definitely. But this did not happen."
However, he denied being sore over not being asked by the party leadership to shoulder the responsibility.