The BJP in the upcoming polls may end up cracking a tough nut in the form of the Jangpura Assembly constituency, which has never fallen into its lap ever since 1993. The reason is the induction of former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi Assembly Speaker Maninder Singh Dhir into the saffron party. Although, Congress’ three-time winner Tarvinder Singh Marwah is expected to give a tough fight to Dhir if BJP gives him a ticket for the seat, yet the prospects of the party in the area, which is mostly dominated by middle and upper middle class voters, still appear to be bright.
Inhabited mostly by the city’s elite and upper middle class voters, the Jangpura seat has remained a Congress bastion until the December 2013 Assembly elections where the fledgling AAP had made inroads thereby pushing the Congress to the second spot for the first time. The Congress lost Jangpura, to the AAP when Dhir defeated Marwah by nearly 2,000 votes. The BJP, which so far has never been able to win the seat, settled for third position with Pankaj Jain as its candidate.
Now, with Dhir’s entry into the BJP, the party hopes it chances of winning the seat will substantially improve. Senior leaders of the party, however, avoided answering directly if Dhir would be given a ticket. “Jangpura is a constituency which mostly comprises of the elite and upper middle class voters. It is a fact that the middle class voters have written off the AAP after it resigned in just 49 days from the Delhi Government. Congress’ leader Marwah cannot be ignored, but the party’s overall stature is no longer the same. If we project someone who has won recently from the seat, it obviously would improve our chances. A final decision in this regard would be taken in an appropriate time,” said Prabhat Jha, Delhi BJP in-charge.
Dhir told The Pioneer, he has not asked for a ticket from the BJP and has joined the party “without any conditions”. “I was a BJP worker since I was 18 years old. Returning to the party is like a homecoming for me. India is progressing swiftly and in the right direction under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, so I got inspired to join the party all the more. I have no greed of getting a ticket and neither did I leave AAP for being denying a ticket. I had never applied for one,” maintained Dhir.
On being asked why he decided to join the party now and not earlier, he replied, “I am the Speaker of the Delhi Assembly. Holding a constitutional position, I had to present a neutral face. So I kept mum. Conflicts with the AAP’s top leadership were present even then.”
On AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal’s “anarchic style of functioning”, he said, “I had tried to communicate with Kejriwal twice and the same I tried with Manish Sisodia as well. But nobody paid a heed. Kejriwal did not do a right thing by resigning without even consulting the other leaders of the party.”