The Hindu : New Delhi News : BJP keen to use MCD elections for targeting Sheila Dikshit

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Wednesday, Mar 21, 2007
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BJP keen to use MCD elections for targeting Sheila Dikshit

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

It has its eyes fixed on the Assembly elections due next year

NEW DELHI: While most people are viewing the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections as a "make or break'' poll for Delhi Congress president Ram Babu Sharma, the Delhi BJP is keen to use the elections for targeting Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit as it looks ahead and has its eyes firmly fixed on the Assembly elections due in 2008. "For us it is a fight against the Congress at large and that includes its misrule in the MCD over five years, in Delhi over eight years and at the Centre over the last three years,'' says Delhi BJP president Harsh Vardhan, adding that people too are not prepared to see the polls as only a referendum on the functioning of Congress in the MCD alone.

"When a leader goes out to seek votes, people corner him on all the issues ranging from local to national. So a candidate in the Lok Sabha polls cannot say that drainage or sanitation is not in his domain. Likewise, this time the polls would also provide an opportunity to people to express their anger on the failure of the Delhi Government on various counts,'' Dr. Vardhan adds.

"After the privatisation of power distribution, people are facing problems on account of load-shedding, inflated bills and tampered meters. The water supply situation is also very poor and people have to remain awake at night to fill up their buckets,'' Dr. Vardhan said, adding that there are many such issues on which the BJP would target the Sheila Dikshit Government.

Political observers are of the view that Delhi generally follows a trend when it comes to voting one party in or out of power. "The trend starts with the MCD polls, goes through the Assembly elections and culminates with the Lok Sabha elections. Normally, it is one party that rules in all the three.'' As for Ms. Dikshit, they say, while very few candidates supported by her are in the fray -- as the selection process was dominated by Mr. Sharma and MPs Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar -- this would not stop the other parties from using the opportunity to target her. There is another view that Ms. Dikshit has deliberately distanced herself from the MCD poll process.

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