The Hindu : New Delhi News : BJP fails to reap the `profit' harvest

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 19, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

BJP fails to reap the `profit' harvest

Sujay Mehdudia

Leaders busy in their own `struggle for political survival', maintain mysterious silence over the issue

NEW DELHI: As the office of profit controversy rages in the Delhi Government, a divided Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party has failed to cash in on the confusion and fear within the Congress ranks. It has not succeeded in gaining the upper edge in the "psychological war" that could well decide the future of city politics in the coming days.

Political observers are of the view that the BJP has not been able to corner the Congress party on this issue. The failure has been both at the Central and State levels where leaders are busy in their own "struggle for political survival". It has been left to BJP MLA from Saket Vijay Jolly to take the initiative and carry forward the battle for disqualification of 19 Congress MLAs single-handedly.

Interestingly, while the issue threatens to reduce the Sheila Dikshit Government into a minority status, the BJP leaders including the Delhi unit president Harsh Vardhan, Leader of the Opposition Jagdish Mukhi and even the South Delhi MP and in-charge Delhi affairs Vijay Kumar Malhotra have maintained a mysterious silence over the entire episode.

Party insiders informed that the issue did not even merit a discussion or consideration at the regular party meetings leading to suspicion that some of the party leaders were deliberately siding with the Congress in this whole episode. However, what is even more intriguing, party leaders felt, was the silence of the Central BJP leaders including Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha L.K. Advani and party president Rajnath Singh who have virtually left the party cadres to fend for themselves in Delhi.

"In Delhi there has been hardly any worthwhile action or reaction from the top leaders. This has confirmed the worst of suspicions that some of the BJP leaders are soft on the Congress Government in Delhi," a senior party leader remarked.

Interestingly, Mr. Jolly has received little or no support from either the Delhi unit or the Central leadership despite having apprised senior leaders about the complicated situation. On the other hand, Mr. Malhotra, considered as one of the front-runners for the Chief Minister's post after next Assembly polls, has remained silent on the issue and has been more than happy in staging "symbolic protests" on other issues in order to marginalise the influence of his friend-turned-political rival Madan Lal Khurana.

"There has been a vacuum in leadership after the departure of Mr. Khurana. The young leaders have failed to prove their worth and the veterans of Delhi BJP have either been sidelined or have little time to offer to city politics leading to the present state of affairs within the Delhi BJP. Along with contesting the case in the Election Commission, the party should have built pressure on the Congress MLAs to resign their seats after the Election Commission issued notices. But this has not happened and everybody is now fighting to get a stranglehold over the party affairs after the organisational polls," a party MLA added.

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