The Hindu : New Delhi News : Divided BJP fails to corner Sheila Government

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 13, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Divided BJP fails to corner Sheila Government

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI, AUG. 12. At best it can be termed as a wasted opportunity. The Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party has not only faltered in holding its organisational elections, it has also failed to corner the Sheila Dikshit Government on the issue of deficiencies as pointed out in the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) report, especially those pertaining to privatisation of the power sector.

In fact, the BJP has looked like an uninspired and dormant group within and outside the Delhi Assembly. There is hardly any enthusiasm among the cadres and the top leadership in the State has been unable to infuse any kind of spark in the organisation or the party workers who are yet to recover from the drubbing received in the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.

Interestingly, the party's only elected Member of Parliament from South Delhi, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, has steered away from taking up role in the city politics, indicating the level of differences within the party.

Mr. Malhotra, who had once made the new Unit Area Method system of house tax as a major election issue, has not raked up the matter after being elected due to his reported differences with the State leadership.

On the other hand, the BJP has looked a completely divided group during its performance inside and outside Delhi Assembly. So strong is the dissension within the party that its MLAs have been forced to take up issues on individual basis. The differences between the Leader of the Opposition, Jagdish Mukhi, and the Delhi unit president, Harsh Vardhan, are no secret, but its fallout is already having an adverse impact on the output of the party and the morale of its cadres.

In fact, there is total disillusionment and confusion in the party over the issues to be raised and the manner in which they need to be highlighted.

Otherwise how would one explain the failure of the BJP to go to town over the adverse findings of the CAG with regard to privatisation of the power in the Capital? Instead, the party leadership thought it fit to hold dharnas on the issues like hike in parking fee, killing of party activist in Kerala and a demonstration against decision of the Andhra Pradesh Government to give five per cent reservation to Muslims in Government jobs which hardly concerns Delhi or touches the vast majority of the population.

This gave an impression that the party was clearly straying from the important issues of water and power and instead it was indulging in appeasement of a certain section of the Central leadership by raking up national issues instead of local ones.

"It is unfortunate that a party that had made a hue and cry in the past over the issue of privatisation of power in Delhi and had levelled serious allegations of corruption and wrong doing against the Congress Government has preferred to maintain a low profile when serious discrepancies have been pointed out in the CAG report,'' a senior party leader remarked.

Political observers are of the view that the saffron party has lost focus of the issues and everybody seems to be pulling in different directions.

Senior leaders like former Minister, Sahib Singh Verma, are pursuing his own agenda. Another former Minister, Vijay Goel, is maintaining a low profile not wanting to take up any responsibility at the moment in the party.

The party certainly needs a new dynamic and aggressive leadership at the State level in order to rejuvenate the cadres and re-ignite the spark that was once associated with the party in Delhi, they feel.

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