The Hindu : New Delhi News : Hopefuls queue up at BJP doors

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 02, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Hopefuls queue up at BJP doors

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

However, the party has adopted a systematic approach to screen applicants

NEW DELHI: With the Bharatiya Janata Party doing well in the Assembly elections in Punjab and Uttarakhand, those seeking a party ticket for the forthcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections have begun knocking at the doors of all senior party leaders.

Be it party president Rajnath Singh, Delhi affairs in-charge Vijay Kumar Malhotra or former Union Minister Vijay Goel, just about everyone has been receiving people who want them to put in a word with the Delhi State BJP MCD Election Committee chaired by Delhi BJP president Harsh Vardhan. However, while the party leaders are receiving the applications so that no one feels hurt, they are forwarding them to the Delhi BJP office for a proper scrutiny.

According to Dr. Vardhan, the office has already received thousands of bio-data sheets. "With the number of MCD wards having increased this time round following the delimitation exercise, the workers believe it could be their day under the sun."

The party has nevertheless adopted a very systematic approach to screening the colourful and neatly printed mass of bio-data and is not getting swayed away in any way. "Soon after the election dates were finalised, the party had asked all its 141 mandals and 16 districts for feedback on the candidates. They had sent their recommendations to us for all the 272 wards," Dr. Vardhan said. The party is primarily encouraging people to fight from the wards in which their homes are located.

The Delhi BJP had also appointed 16 observers for inspecting the process of short-listing of candidates in all the 16 districts. "The observers held several discussions with all the 141 mandals and then short-listed some names for each of the wards. This was then discussed with the district committees and then forwarded to the State BJP office."

The party office has prepared 272 different files based on the wards with the bio-data received. The party would be deciding on the final list of candidates after considering them along with the list submitted by the district offices. In some cases, exceptionally good candidates would also be considered directly for tickets.

All the names are expected to be finalised before March 10, the day nominations for the elections start.

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