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Young brigade out of the shadow of old guards

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI DEC. 7. Whatever might have been the outcome of the Delhi Assembly results, but one common thing that has emerged in both the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress is the need for giving a fresh and young look to the party and its leadership at the State level. Already voices of dissent are being raised demanding an end to the domination of the old guard in Delhi politics in both the parties. The situation is more desperate in the BJP as it does some soul searching in a bid to rise from the ruins and stage a comeback for the Lok Sabha polls.

In fact, within the Congress also, the young brigade is all ready to get out of the shadows of the senior party leaders and emerge on their own on the political scene of the city. The outcome of the polls has made it very clear that new and young faces have done quite well in comparison to the old and worn out leaders. For instance, both the young leaders, Anil Bhardwaj and Vinay Sharma, got elected to the Delhi Assembly despite strong opposition from the set-up. Another, young candidate, Sumesh Shoukeen, lost the polls in Palam constituency by a slender margin. Here also, the former Congress MLA is understood to have worked for the defeat of his own official nominee, which enabled the BJP to win the seat. Notably, both of them defeated heavyweights and two-time sitting BJP MLAs to emerge victorious. The experience of the party with the new faces has also proved be a success that is evident in the old "Team Delhi'' of the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit. The young and energetic, Ajay Maken, came up with an outstanding performance as a Minister. He was closely followed by, Raj Kumar Chauhan and Haroon Yusuf, who did a good job. "It is high time the old guard gave way to the new leadership within the party. The newly elected MLAs are looking at the leadership rather than these leaders to place their loyalties which is a change from the past when nothing moved without the consent of the senior Delhi leaders,'' a senior party office-bearer remarked.

As for the BJP, the situation is very desperate. A change in the State leadership and breaking out of the shackles of the old guard is the need of the hour. Many within the party warn that if the central leadership continued to give weightage to leaders like the Delhi BJP president, Madan Lal Khurana, Union Labour Minister, Sahib Singh Verma and South Delhi MP, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, it would be faced a similar situation in the Lok Sabha polls. "The situation might be different for the party in other States, but in Delhi it is going to be repeat of the Assembly polls if corrective measures are not taken. The people at the grassroots will join hands to defeat these leaders who have thrived by deciding things among themselves and leaving nothing to others,'' a BJP leader remarked. Interestingly, while the central BJP leadership has been claiming that it was the BJP-led Central Government's performance that had ensured the victory of the party in three States of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan, the Delhi BJP leaders are quietly blaming the economic policies of their Central Government for their debacle in the Assembly polls.

In fact, many within the party are of the view that this was being done to divert the attention of the central leadership from the real issues. It is understood the party has also been taken aback by the outburst of Mr.Verma that he was not taken into confidence on distribution of party tickets to some candidates. "In fact, Mr. Verma and Mr. Malhotra had marginalised Mr. Khurana. They cannot shift the blame when the tide has gone against them. Everyone who was involved in this process should be held accountable if the party is really worried about restructuring the party unit in Delhi,'' a BJP veteran remarked.

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