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Former Councillors lobbying for Assembly tickets

By Lalit K. Jha

NEW DELHI SEPT. 16. Unmindful of their poor performance in the 2002 municipal polls, about two dozen ex-BJP Councillors including three former Mayors and a Deputy-Mayor - who faced humiliating defeats - - have begun lobbying for the party tickets for the forthcoming Assembly elections. Nearly half a dozen sitting party Councillors have also joined the race to seek an elevation to the Delhi Assembly.

Arguing that they were the natural claimants for a party nomination to the Assembly seat, the sitting Councillors have petitioned the leadership that they had won last year during the anti-BJP wave. Both the former and present Councillors complain that in 1998 Assembly polls they were denied the ticket following party's policy decision that no `sitting members' would be given party ticket.

Even senior party leaders in the BJP's Delhi unit concede that many of these aspirants are heavy weights and their claim was natural. Many of them would be given party ticket this time, they said. However, another group of leaders are lobbying that the Councillors - both past and present -- be denied ticket and the party should repeat its 1998 policy. "As for the ex-Councillors, there is no point in giving chance to those who lost in 2002 municipal polls,'' argued another BJP leader.

Among the heavy weights aspiring to contest the Assembly elections are the three former Mayors, Shanti Desai (Chandni Chowk Assembly seat), Yogdhyan Ahuja (Vishwas Nagar) and Meera Kanwaria (Baljeet Nagar). The former Deputy Mayor, Rajesh Gehlot, and a close confidant of the former Chief Minister, Sahib Singh Verma, is lobbying for Palam. The former Leader of the House, Mahesh Chand Sharma, is also seeking party ticket.

Besides Mr. Desai and Mr. Ahuja, prominent among those who lost out in the 1993 and 1998 Assembly ticket distribution include the Leader of the Opposition in MCD, Subhash Arya, and the Leader of Opposition in Standing Committee, Vijender Kumar. While Mr. Arya is a claimant for Rajouri Garden, Mr. Kumar is from Badli. Both won handsomely during the anti-BJP wave last year.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) Councillor from Khyala, Dayanand Chandela -- who recently joined the BJP - is likely to contest from Vishnu Garden. Mr. Chandela has been trying to enter the Delhi Assembly since 1993.

The Deputy Leader of Opposition in MCD House, Onkar Singh Thapar, who won the last election from Akali quota, is understood to have made up his mind to contest from Tilak Nagar. The Gulmohar Park BJP Councillor, Aarti Mehra, is a strong candidate for Hauz Khas.

Among the prominent former Councillors who are lobbying are Anil Goel (from Saket), Indu Bhushan (Timarpur), Madan Lal Balmiki (Sultanpuri), Mahender Nagpal (Wazirpur), Mahesh Chaddha (Patel Nagar), Manoj Shokeen (Nangloi), Radhey Shyam Sharma (R. K. Puram), Ramesh Mohan Chauhan (Jahangir Puri), Satish Chand Jain (Ballimaran), Satish Jain (Sadar) and Seema Devi (Narela).

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