Even as its top leadership asked the State unit to be wary of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Delhi BJP, at the ground level, will be considering the Congress a bigger threat than the fledgling party. The BJP has now shifted its focus to the municipal wards ruled by the Congress in the city’s three municipal corporations. Its senior functionaries are frequenting the Congress-led wards to point out the infrastructural deficit and lack of policy implementation there.
It is pertinent to note that the BJP represents 138 wards in Delhi while the Congress has 77 which accounts for the second highest — hence, the direct competition. The BSP represents 13 wards while others hold around 32 wards.
The move, according to senior BJP leaders, is to strengthen the party in areas where the BJP does not have a significant hold.
“One of our primary strategies for campaigning is to highlight the good works done under the BJP-led three civic bodies. But we will also exploit and expose the weaknesses of the wards which are not under our party. The top functionaries of the three civic bodies have been inspecting the wards led by other parties to pinpoint the lack of development work by their councillors,” said the BJP leader.
The top leadership of the party believes that the move would not only expose the Congress’ underperformance in its wards but also strengthen the stakes of the BJP at the booth level. “Not just that, the exercise will also help in improving the BJP’s presence in as many as 30 Assembly constituencies. It will, in turn, help us achieve our ‘Mission 60’ to a great extent,” said another senior party leader.
Except that of the Deputy Mayor of SDMC, all posts of Mayors, Deputy Mayors and Standing Committee Chairmen in three corporations are held by the BJP. Still the saffron party does not want to take any chance. The BJP leadership has also directed the Chairmen of various statutory and ad hoc committees like education committee, works committee, health committee and environment management committee among others to visit various wards and take stock of the works carried out by the councillors.
In May this year, the BJP had lost the post of Deputy Mayor to Congress’ Praveen Rana.
The national Capital is divided into 272 wards and 70 Assembly constituencies. Except the New Delhi and Delhi Cantonment, each of the 68 Assembly constituencies comprises four wards. BJP leaders said the 134 wards won by Opposition parties would mean nearly 32 Assembly constituencies that will be crucial for the BJP in the upcoming elections. Apart from the BJP and the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party represents 15 wards in three corporations while 42 wards were won by the parties like lJP, JD(U) and Independent councillors.