US President Barack Obama’s visit to the Capital to attend the 66th Republic Day has not shifted the BJP’s focus from the seat of Delhi, as most of its Central leaders have been on their toes overseeing the electioneering for the February 7 Assembly polls. With only nine days left, the party will go full throttle with its campaigning from Tuesday.
As the national leadership has handed over poll management works to Central leaders, the State BJP unit is struggling to keep its threads together owing to lack of coordination between the district units and the candidates. As locals BJP leaders rued, candidates with different mindset and different style of functioning are not matching up with the BJP’s poll management and campaign schedule. Worried local leaders have now approached the MPs in-charge and other senior leaders, seeking their intervention.
Some of the most confused constituencies include Krishna Nagar, Patparganj, Okhla, Jangpura, Shakur Basti and Patel Nagar. The East Delhi BJP unit is most worried, where the party has fielded four newcomers, including its chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi. While Bedi is busy campaigning in all 70 constituencies, her close aides have taken over the charge of her
campaign and preparations in Krishna Nagar. Others in East Delhi include former Delhi Assembly Speaker and the candidate from Jangpura, MS Dhir, Patparganj candidate Vinod Kumar Binny and Okhla candidate Brahma Singh Bidhuri who defected from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) just days before the announcement of candidates.
The former AAP leaders and MlAs in the 2013 Assembly polls, Dhir and Binny, are surrounded by their own set of workers and the BJP leaders have failed to strike a chord with them. “Despite being made candidate by the BJP, the new entrants to BJP are proving difficult for the local leaders to coordinate. The campaign schedule and poll programs often fail to materialise due to lack of coordination. At times their workers and supporters skip the volunteers meetings organized by the district units,” said a Delhi BJP leader, who is supervising over party’s affairs in East Delhi parliamentary constituency.
Similarly, the BJP candidate from Okhla, Brahma Singh Bidhuri has not been among those working in tandem with the BJP leaders. A defector from BSP, Bidhuri is depending more on his old associates who have their own style of functioning. The other two leaders are Krishna Tirath and Dr SC Vats — both coming from the Congress with their supporters. While Tirath has been two-time MP from Karol Bagh and North West Delhi; Vats was a former MlA from his traditional seat of Shakur Basti. The BJP leaders in these constituencies too complained that they were virtually sidelined by the two candidates.
“Sidelining the local leaders proves detrimental to their morale. At the same time, this could also affect the poll results. We have approached the local MPs and the party in-charge in these seats seeking their intervention,” leaders said.