As the BJP is trying to maintain a distance from septuagenarians for contesting the upcoming polls, the party is now clearly looking forward to new and young faces. In line with this, apart from the fact that a host of other AAP and Congress leaders are joining the saffron party, speculations are rife that now former AAP leader Shazia Ilmi is all set to join the BJP. Not just this, party insiders have suggested that Ilmi may take on AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal in New Delhi constituency. last month, Ilmi had joined the BJP’s flagship campaign — Clean India Mission.
Sources said, the party is in the lookout for dynamic and young faces to fight from a few select seats. Instead of giving tickets to senior leaders, it would ask them to work as back door strategist to help the party win.
Although there has been no official confirmation about Ilmi joining the BJP so far, but sources within the party have clearly indicated that talks are going on to field her against Kejriwal in the New Delhi seat. Besides her, Delhi Assembly's lone independent MlA Rambir Shokeen is also likely to join the saffron party soon.
BJP leaders suggested that youth leaders would be asked to take leadership positions in both the elections as well as in organisation. The party is looking for young faces having mass base in their area to defeat other parties in ensuing polls. "As for tickets for the ensuing polls several young leaders are in the fray. Nakul. Bhardwaj is seeking a ticket from Patparganj, Jitender Choudhry from Gandhi Nagar, Jitender Mahajan.from Shahdara, Anil Jha from Kirari is also a sitting MlA, Anil Sharma from RK Puram and Gaurav Pandey from Burari are a few strong contenders," said the leader.
Ilmi had unsuccessfully contested the lok Sabha election from Ghaziabad on an AAP ticket and quit the party in May citing lack of internal democracy. Kejriwal had won the New Delhi Assembly seat defeating three-time Congress Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and BJP candidate Vijendra Gupta. "Ilmi quit the AAP after her differences with the leadership of the newbie outfit. If she takes on Kejriwal, it will be a different election altogether," said a senior BJP leader.