The Hindu : Infighting haunts BJP, Cong.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 18, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Infighting haunts BJP, Cong.

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JAN.17. Realising that the Lok Sabha elections are round the corner, both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress have already started preparing for the big battle in Delhi. There is already talk of fresh faces and youngsters being fielded for the seven Parliamentary seats that will be up for grabs. However, the ghost of senior leaders past their prime and severe infighting continues to haunt both the parties in the run-up to the crucial polls.

At present, the BJP holds all the seven Lok Sabha seats and the ruling Congress would make an all-out bid to wrest half if not all the seats from the BJP. Fresh from the victory in the recent Delhi Assembly polls, the Congress will find the going tough during the Lok Sabha polls as the focus would be totally on different issues and local politics is likely to take a backseat. The BJP is all geared up to face the polls and backed by the feel good factor in favour of the Vajpayee Government, the party hopes to repeat its performance and retain all the seats. For the new Delhi BJP president, Harsh Vardhan, this would be his first popularity test and also put under scrutiny his leadership abilities and the capacity to steer the party through in difficult times.

On the other hand, the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, now in her second stint in office, would have to raise its performance levels and take on the BJP challenge under one umbrella that looks a remote possibility. Political observers are of the view that although, there has been a realignment of political forces within the Delhi Congress, but still a number of power centres remain that could upset the balance within the party. The past week saw both Ms. Dikshit and the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president, Chaudhary Prem Singh, joining hands. It is learnt that Ms. Dikshit has been asked by the party high command to prepare and submit a list of prospective candidates.

As the party is facing difficult times, the thrust is on putting up clean, young and strong candidates to take on the BJP. A large number of names have been doing the rounds in political circles. The Outer Delhi leader, Sajjan Kumar, is likely to stake his claim for the party ticket from his old constituency as the courts have cleared him for his alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

The former Union Minister, Jagdish Tytler, is preparing for the political battle from the Sadar constituency while the former Member of Parliament, J.P. Aggarwal, is making a noise about his claim from the Chandni Chowk Parliamentary constituency.

The former Union Minister, R.K. Dhawan, is once again preparing to contest from the New Delhi seat and the Rohtas Nagar, MLA, Ram Babu Sharma, is seeking a ticket from the East Delhi seat. He faces rivalry within the party from the Ghoda MLA, Bhisham Sharma.

As for the BJP, the situation does not seem to be that desperate. With the exit of the former Chief Minister, Madan Lal Khurana, from the Sadar Parliamentary constituency, the Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs, Vijay Goel, is all set to shift to the Sadar constituency from his Chandni Chowk seat.

Interestingly, Mr. Goel has already taking interest in the constituency and could well pose a tough challenge to Mr. Tytler. Mr. Goel has already won once from the Sadar constituency. The Union Labour Minister, Sahib Singh Verma, the Union Culture and Tourism Minister, Jagmohan, and the BJP spokesman, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, are all set to contest from their Outer Delhi, New Delhi and South Delhi Lok Sabha seats.

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