The Hindu : New Delhi News : Battlelines drawn for by-polls

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Thursday, Sep 23, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Battlelines drawn for by-polls

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 22. The battlelines have been drawn for by-elections to the two Delhi Assembly seats of Rajouri Garden and Baljit Nagar (SC). The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been receiving a drubbing in every election held since 2002, will once again be fighting against heavy odds as the two segments are considered a Congress bastion and divisions within the saffron party are likely to add to its woes.

The BJP has fielded Ramesh Khanna from Rajouri Garden against Ramesh Lamba of the Congress and Raj Mehra from Baljit Nagar against Rajesh Lilothia of the Congress. Mr. Lilothia filed his nominations in the presence of the various Congress leaders including Delhi Ministers, Haroon Yusuf and Raj Kumar Chauhan; Karol Bagh Member of Parliament, Krishna Tirath; and the Chief Whip of the Congress Legislature Party, Ramakant Goswami. On the other hand, Mr. Mehra filed his nomination in the presence of Delhi BJP president, Harsh Vardhan. Mr. Khanna had filed his nomination for the Rajouri Garden seat yesterday.

For the BJP, it is important to win the two seats, as it would give the party the necessary boost and end its losing spree, which continues to haunt it. It is also an acid test for Dr. Harsh Vardhan who will be leading the party's campaign in the by-polls.

It is understood that Mr. Lamba was granted the party ticket, despite strong claimants for the same, at the instance of the New Delhi Member of Parliament, Ajay Maken, who had vacated the seat on his elevation to Parliament. Dispelling all speculation, Mr. Maken had conveyed to the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, and Ms. Dikshit that he was not interested in getting the party ticket for his wife, Radhika Maken, or any other relative and would rather prefer giving the same to a party worker. This view, it is understood, seems to have gone down well with the Congress leadership, which appreciated the selfless stand of Mr. Maken.

However, this situation turned upside down for Ms. Tirath, who was seeking the party nomination for her husband, Vijay Tirath. It is learnt that Ms. Gandhi was unhappy over the fact that Ms. Tirath was trying to push through the candidature of her husband who had made no concrete contribution to the party while another Congress MP had opted to field a party worker instead of his near and dear ones. It is also learnt that local Congressmen raised a virtual banner of revolt against the move by Ms. Tirath to work for the ticket of her husband. On the other hand, senior AICC leaders including Ahmed Patel and Oscar Fernandes backed Mr. Lilothia. He also got the support of Ms. Dikshit for his candidature and that is what really clinched the issue in his favour. By giving the party nomination to Mr. Lilothia, the Congress president has sent out a message loud and clear that the youth will no longer be ignored and they would be given their due place in the scheme of things.

As for the BJP, the party is still not in the fighting mode despite this bring a crucial battle. On the local front also, the party is badly divided between loyalties to various factions. There is a strong possibility that the recognised BJP leaders or local MLAs are unlikely to work for the success of the party candidates in view of the strong differences between leaders at various levels. The ongoing organisational polls in Delhi have further widened the wedge between the various factions leading to a situation where the chances of the party candidates springing a surprise look very remote.

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