With the landslide victory of their ally, Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), in the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee elections coming barely a few months before the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls, Delhi BJP leaders on Wednesday sought to project the result as an indicator of the things to come.
Delhi BJP president Vijender Gupta while meeting SAD (Badal) president Sukhbir Singh Badal, termed the defeat of the Congress-backed Sarna group in the elections a “personal defeat” of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Delhi Minister of Gurdwara Administration Arvinder Singh Lovely.
“The Congress has failed in the last two litmus tests. The downfall of Congress had started in the Delhi Municipal Corporation elections last year and now with the defeat of the Sarna group in the DSGMC polls the count down of Congress has begun,” he said.
Mr. Gupta said the indications are clear that people would now also defeat the Congress in the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections “for atrocities committed on them”.
The BJP leader charged that while DSGMC polls are basically a religious matter “the Delhi Government and the Congress party had made it an arena of politics and money power”. The massive defeat of the Sarna camp, which the Congress was backing, amounted to rejection of the party by the electorate.
“Lakhs of Sikh voters of Delhi have through this election given a message to the Congress Government that the days of its atrocities, corruption and anti-people policies are coming to an end,” he said.
Former Union Minister Vijay Goel while congratulating Mr. Badal said the elections have shown that “the people of Delhi and India are now cleansing the country of the corrupt rule of Congress at every platform and on every possible opportunity. He termed the victory a mandate of people against the Congress rule”.
Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly V. K. Malhotra said claimed that the Delhi Government had tried its best to stall the gurdwara elections and the polls only became possible because the Supreme Court ordered that they be held. He said the Delhi Government had also tried to amend the Gurdwara Act but did not succeed.
Meanwhile, Mukesh Sharma, parliamentary secretary to Delhi Chief Minister, said the Congress had no role to play in the gurdwara elections as it was purely a religious matter. Averring that thus the poll result would not have any impact on the Delhi Assembly elections, he said the very fact that Congress MLA from Jangpura, Tarvinder Singh Marwaha, did not contest as a party candidate but on the Kendriya Guru Singh Sabha name and won showed that the party had remained neutral in the polls.
