To set its house in order, ahead of the crucial Assembly polls, the Delhi BJP on Sunday formed a core committee to look into the party affairs. Formation of the core committee comprising senior leaders from various factions was imminent as several leaders, particularly from the dissident groups, had approached the Delhi BJP election in-charge Nitin Gadkari seeking a larger role in the party matters and election management.
The core committee comprises 17 members and seven special invitees like VK Malhotra, Arti Mehra, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Vijender Gupta, Vani Tripathi, Jagdish Mukhi and Vijay Jolly among others.
An election committee consisting of 54 members has also been formed by Goel to look into the election strategies. Soon after the committee was announced, Gadkari issued a Press statement claiming all was well within the BJP Delhi unit and the party would contest the election with full vigour against the Congress.
All senior leaders — including State unit office-bearers, sitting MlAs and senior leaders in the three BJP-ruled municipal corporations — have been included in the two committees. The names of Malhotra, BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in the 2008 Assembly election, former Delhi BJP presidents Dr Harsh Vardhan, Vijender Gupta, OP Kohli and Mange Ram Garg figure in both the committees announced on Sunday evening. The three Mayors, leaders of the House and Chairpersons of Standing Committee in the municipal corporations are also in the core committee. The special invitees to the core group include Arti Mehra, Vani Tripathi, Shyam Jaju, Anil Jain, Abdul Rasheed, Rajesh Gehlot and Poonam Azad.
However, after formation of the committees, Gadkari said the party was now in election mode and that the BJP would collectively take on the Congress in the upcoming polls. “With the setting up of an election committee and a core group, the Delhi BJP has now been put in the election mode. The representative character of these important committees reflects the cohesiveness in the Delhi BJP as well as the demographic changes in the national Capital,” Gadkari said.
Denying any factionalism in the State unit, he said that he would like to assure the people of Delhi that the BJP as a united party will dedicate itself to serve them without any discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, religion and sex or any other consideration.
He asked the party ranks and files in Delhi to work collectively and launch an aggressive campaign against the ineffective Congress regime and expose its failure on all fronts, particularly the rampant corruption, fast deteriorating law and order, mounting inflation and sky-rocketing prices of all essential commodities. Sources said that a fortnight ago, Gadkari had also asked all senior party leaders to work with 'unity' to ensure the defeat of Congress-led Government in the Capital in the polls slated for November.