In a bid to project a collective leadership and crack the whip on self-projection by certain individuals, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s central leadership has decided to contest the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls without projecting anyone as the Chief Ministerial candidate and put in place an “informal working structure” to run the party affairs till such time.
The move is likely to come as a setback to Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel, who has been projecting himself as a potential Chief Ministerial candidate for Delhi.
Mr. Goel’s supporters had painted the town red and left no stone unturned to hammer home this point by putting up posters and hoardings all over the Capital.
This had not only led to alienation of senior Delhi leaders, but also attracted the displeasure of the central party leadership. Many party leaders had complained about this “self projection” by Mr. Goel to the central leaders and party in-charge of Delhi and former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari.
Seeking to put an end to the continued infighting within the Delhi unit and the game of one-upmanship, the party feels it will not be wise to project any individual as the Chief Ministerial candidate and has decided to go to the polls under the banner of collective leadership.
The BJP has also firmly conveyed to the leaders, present and past, that no individual or group will be allowed to get away with acts of indiscipline and that harsh action will be taken against anyone seeking to breach this line.
“Senior party leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra has been conveyed not to contest the polls in the coming elections. All leaders have been told to project themselves under the banner of the party and to put an end to individual rallies and projections as these will be considered as acts of indiscipline. A proper policy for campaigning in the run-up to the Assembly elections is being formulated by an ‘informal working group’, which will run the affairs of the Delhi unit under the leadership of Mr. Gadkari,” BJP sources associated with the Delhi Assembly poll strategy said.
The ‘informal working group’ will comprise senior leaders like Mr. Malhotra, Mr. Goel, Harsh Vardhan, Vijender Gupta and Aarti Mehra among others to run the party affairs in Delhi. This group will meet regularly under Mr. Gadkari’s leadership and discuss all issues and project a collective leadership to send a clear signal that the party is united in its fight against the Congress. “We will take up the issue of corruption in the UPA regime, price rise, corruption in the Commonwealth Games 2010 and the various scams perpetuated by the Congress-led government at the Centre in our campaign to make it a direct BJP-Congress fight,” the party leader said.
