The Hindu : New BJP list sparks protest

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 10, 2003

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New BJP list sparks protest

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI NOV. 9. The release of the second list of candidates by the Bharatiya Janata Party for Delhi led to a fresh round of protests with one of the supporters of the former MLA from Nasirpur, Vinod Sharma, even trying to set his shirt on fire before the police intervened. So strong were the protests that it forced the party leadership to withdraw the candidature of Virender Juyal from Mandawali even after it was officially announced by the Delhi BJP president, Madan Lal Khurana.

Trouble started when Mr. Khurana and colleagues came out from the Prime Minister's residence, where the meeting of the Central Parliamentary Board was held, and announced a second list of 22 candidates. As soon as TV channels flashed the names of the candidates, supporters of Mr. Sharma descended on the Pandit Pant Marg office of BJP. Shouting slogans, the agitated supporters gheraoed Mr. Khurana as soon as he reached the office. They had a heated exchanges with Mr. Khurana who said such behaviour was unacceptable and they were harming their own leader by such actions. The supporters were demanding that the party should announce the candidature of Mr.Sharma from Nasirpur and should not withhold the announcement. "Both Mr. Khurana and the Union Labour Minister, Sahib Singh Verma, has termed the candidature of Mr. Sharma as formidable, then what is the reason for delay. The seat has been sold by senior party leaders,'' a supporter shouted.

After Mr. Khurana had released the list of candidates to newsmen, the supporters decided to stage a dharna. They squatted in front of Mr. Khurana's vehicle and did not allow it to proceed. As Mr.Khurana came out of the press conference, the supporters had a heated argument with him and charged that the seat was being gifted to the Congress. An agitated Mr.Khurana said such actions were unwarranted and after going inside his office called some of the supporters of the former MLA.

Suddenly, there was chaos as one of the supporters lit a match and tried to set his shirt on fire after removing it. But alert policemen snatched his shirt and took the person to another side in order to prevent any further trouble. By this time a large number of police personnel had reached the BJP office and blocked the way into Mr.Khurana's office. The slogan shouting continued even as the South Delhi MP, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, made his way into the office.

The supporters including women had squatted in large numbers in front of Mr. Khurana's vehicle preventing it from being driven away. These supporters pressed that senior party leaders make on-the-spot commitment of giving the party ticket to Mr. Sharma.

But the BJP is in a fix over the issue as Nasirpur is dominated by people from Poorvanchal and the party has also commited itself to give adequate representation to this section. It is learnt that Union Minister for Shipping, Shatrughan Sinha, has also recommended the candidature of Rakesh Sinha, from this seat.

The party is inclined to give this seat to a Bihari in order to placate this community. Similarly, in Malviya Nagar seat, the ticket has gone to former DUSU president, Monica Arora. Here the Union Law and Justice Minister, Arun Jaitely, was reportedly backing the candidature of Siddharth Singh, associated with the media cell of the BJP.

In another interesting development, the party was forced to withdraw the name of Mr. Juyal from Mandawali after it led to strong protests within the constituency. Mr. Juyal had been seeking the party nomination from Saket and is a resident of Khanpur from South Delhi. But he has been forced to shift to East Delhi.

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