An apparent rift is inevitable in the State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the poll-bound Delhi. A host of State leaders — including MlAs and Councillors, who were not entrusted with an office in the recently announced team of Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel — got together over a dinner hosted by former Delhi Mayor Arti Mehra on Thursday evening. Goel was obviously missing as these leaders were too, in the chaat party organised by the Delhi BJP president earlier this month.
Speculation was rife as several prominent faces were seen there, including senior BJP leader Prof VK Malhotra, former Delhi BJP president Vijender Gupta, Harsharan Singh Balli, SCl Gupta, Shyam lal Garg, former General Secretary Pravesh Verma and Vijay Jolly among others. Presence of leaders like Vijender Gupta, who did not share a cordial relation with Arti Mehra during their stint in the erstwhile MCD, added strength to the faction. However, senior leaders said this was only to shed personal differences and strengthen the party’s prospects ahead of the Assembly polls.
As many as 40 councillors from the three Municipal Corporations too joined the gathering. Prominent among them were leader of House in South Corporation Subhash Arya, his North Delhi counterpart Mahendra Nagpal, Standing Committee Chairman in NMC Ram Kishan Singhal, former Chairman of Standing Committee in East Delhi Mehak Singh, North Delhi Corporation's Works Committee Chairman Ravinder Gupta and Rajesh Bhatia among others. While a majority of these leaders felt a communication gap between the State leadership and other leaders was taking the party to a different direction; some believed that this vacuum left an impression that the party was being ruled as a ‘private entity’.
A senior leader said it was the duty of the party establishment to bring all leaders and workers together, but unfortunately nothing right was going on within the party. “It seems he (Goel) is not running the party as an organisation. Total strength of the party is on one side, while he is on the other. It’s more like a personal campaign,” he said.
However, Mehra sought to deny any rift within the party and said it was just a routine get together as desired by several party leaders and workers. Gupta too said he attended the dinner party as he was invited by the former Mayor.