The Hindu : New Delhi News : BJP not to field councillors in Assembly polls

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Tuesday, Jul 08, 2008
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BJP not to field councillors in Assembly polls

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

The move is primarily meant to avoid infighting among party councillors seeking tickets

Majority of the party executive members vetoed the demand of councillors
Most of the sitting BJP MLAs are likely to get ticket in the forthcoming elections

NEW DELHI: To check infighting and ensure team work in the Delhi Assembly segments, the Bharatiya Janata Party is understood to have decided not to give party ticket to candidates who contested the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections in 2007, irrespective of whether they won or lost.

At a recent meeting of the party executive the issue was discussed. While some of the councillors raised the demand that they too should be considered for the ticket for the Assembly polls, the majority of the executive members were against the idea.

Primarily the resistance to the concept was due to the fact that every Assembly segment has four candidates who had fought the MCD elections. If they were to be considered for the ticket, that would make them rivals vis-À-vis each other. This, it was felt, would weaken the party’s position in every Assembly segment.

Some of the senior party leaders were of the view that the councillors have been given a mandate by the people to work for five years. Therefore, their quitting the post for a higher one would not only send a wrong signal that they are disinterested in the work at hand, it would also lead to lot of seats in the MCD falling vacant, necessitating fresh polls.

With senior BJP leaders in the MCD too being prospective candidates for the Assembly polls, it was felt that this would create a problem of leadership in the Corporation where the party has just begun its innings and the performance thus far has been far from satisfactory.

Following the meeting of the party executive, the core group of Delhi BJP comprising Deputy Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Delhi State president Harsh Vardhan, party general secretary Vijay Goel, Leader of Opposition in Assembly Jagdish Mukhi, party in-charge Delhi affairs Thawar Chand Gehlot and Leader of MCD House Subhash Arya had discussed the issue at length. At this meeting too it was decided that those who had contested the MCD polls should not be considered for the Assembly tickets.

The party has enough candidates to field for the Assembly seats and so those who fought last year are now expected to assist them in the poll preparations as a team. Also, many of the senior leaders are of the view that the sitting MLAs, who had won when the Congress was on a high in 2003, should all be given another chance.

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