NEW DELHI: Fearing that intra-party polls at this stage might trigger a new phase of infighting that could prove injurious to the party's prospects and its preparations for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections due early next year, a nervous Bharatiya Janata Party has postponed the organisational polls for the Delhi unit.

According to party insiders, Delhi unit in-charge Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Member of Parliament from South Delhi, is understood to have filed a report with the central leadership that in view of the MCD polls scheduled for early next year, any organisational polls would lead to bad blood and serious infighting at all levels and such a scenario would not be in the interest of the party.

In his plea, Mr. Malhotra is learnt to have stated that the BJP has a very good chance of winning the MCD polls in view of the strong anti-Congress sentiment prevailing in the city and therefore it would be in the best interests of the party to defer the polls and continue with the same set of leaders till the conclusion of the civic polls.

As Delhi does not seem to be the top priority of the BJP leadership in view of the Assembly polls in four States early next year, it agreed to the report submitted by the party in-charge and decided to defer the exercise till the conclusion of the MCD polls. It is understood that Mr. Malhotra was able to convince senior party leaders having interest in Delhi including former Union Ministers Arun Jaitely and Sushma Swaraj who did not oppose this move.

"The Malhotra faction is of the view that with a strong anti-establishment sentiment prevailing in the Capital over the current phase of sealing and demolitions, the BJP could post a thumping victory in the MCD polls providing enough space for the present group to influence any future decision on Delhi leadership," a senior party leader remarked. The decision would mean that the current incumbent, Harsh Vardhan, would continue to hold charge of the Delhi leadership till a new schedule is announced.

However, not all the party leaders are pleased with the decision and have termed it as an attempt by Mr. Malhotra to mislead the party by projecting a wrong picture of the situation as things were not working in his favour during the organisational polls. Interestingly, the organisational polls were to be completed by the end of this month in order to have in place a new president of the Delhi unit along with a team of office bearers. The decision of the leadership to defer the polls has certainly proved to be setback to the rivals of Mr. Malhotra who have been demanding appointment of an outsider as the party in-charge. They had charged that he had been indulging in favouritism due to which the functioning of the organisation had been affected.

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