Even as the BJP postponed a mega workers' convention on the upcoming civic polls in the Capital, party sources said the process to select potential candidates for these would commence early next week. The party’s national president Amit Shah was scheduled to address cadres in the meeting that has been moved to a later date.
Following its decision to disallow all sitting councillors and their family members from contesting polls to the three civic bodies, the party, according to insiders, has now decided to assess the appeal of potential candidates through “their popularity on social media”.
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Social media factor
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“The party will begin processing applications for tickets to contest the civic polls on each of the 272 wards through a series of meetings which will begin on Monday; a potential candidate's popularity on social media will be assessed and those with a good following on sites such as Twitter and Facebook will certainly stand a better chance of being fielded than others,” said a party source.
According to a senior leader, applications would go through several levels of evaluation before being placed before the national leadership for approval.
The party is also waiting for a decision on the delimitation of wards in addition to a verdict on the fate of 21 AAP MLAs appointed Parliamentary Secretaries before deciding on tickets. “Many changes in the party's structure are expected to take place in relation to both the verdicts,” said another leader.
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Workers’meet
Meanwhile, the party Delhi chief Manoj Tiwari announced that the mega convention for booth-level workers will now be held on March 25 as he will be in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday for the swearing-in of the BJP government. Sources added that Mr. Shah's unavailability too was a major reason for the postponement of the event.
Addressing a press conference, Mr. Tiwari apologised for the postponement of the convention which was originally scheduled at the Ramlila Maidan on Sunday.
Shah unavailable
“We did not know that the incoming ministry at Uttar Pradesh will take oath tomorrow. But since we will be away we had to postpone it. It will now be held on March 25,” Mr. Tiwari said. On Friday he had announced the program, which aims to micromanage the BJP’s municipal election campaign.
Mr. Shah and Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu were slated to address the convention which is likely to be attended by over 65,000 BJP booth in-charges, five from each of the 13,372 polling stations in the Capital.