The Hindu : New Delhi News : Lone pillar to withstand Congress storm

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 14, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Lone pillar to withstand Congress storm

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MAY 13. He was the last man standing in the Bharatiya Janata Party's not so shining Delhi. The only man who had some reason for cheer on a day that presented the party with one dismal defeat after another, the BJP national spokesperson, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, was a winning `loser' this Thursday.

His party's performance may have moved from bad to worse during the day as results to the 14th Lok Sabha came out, but for Mr. Malhotra it was a win from the very first round of counting, with the BJP spokesperson beating Congress candidate R.K. Anand by a margin of 16,005 votes from the South Delhi constituency.

While attributing his win to the hard work put in by the BJP and RSS workers, Mr. Malhotra said despite the heavy use of money power by his opponent and the attempts by some of BJP's own workers to sabotage his chances, he had managed to win with the help of loyalists.

But when asked about his party's prospects of forming a Government at the centre, the leader simply refused to comment, maintaining that he was not aware of what was happening outside. "I don't know the situation as yet, but if we lose then I will be obviously very sad," was all he said. Asked about his priority as a Member of Parliament after the elections, Mr. Malhotra said apart from bringing the Metro to South Delhi and improving playgrounds, community centres and improving villages here, he would also take up the issue of property tax.

And although the current circumstances will not really allow Malhotra to go for a big celebration, he is planning to unwind by spending time with his family, something that the election process has kept him away from for sometime now.

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