The Hindu : New Delhi News : New BJP chief for Delhi

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Thursday, Jan 08, 2009
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New BJP chief for Delhi

Staff Reporter

Belonging to the Sangh, Kohli has served in many key positions

New chief: Professor O.P. Kohli

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday handed over the responsibility of leading the party in Delhi into the upcoming Lok Sabha elections to former Rajya Sabha member and senior party leader O. P. Kohli.

Professor Kohli – who replaces Dr. Harsh Vardhan -- was also the Delhi BJP president when the party won the elections for the first Delhi Assembly in 1993 and Madan Lal Khurana became the Chief Minister.

Party sources described Prof. Kohli as a highly respected and very acceptable face of the party. Known for his steadfast approach, he has served in many key positions.

Belonging to the Sangh, he has in the past been president of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. As a teacher at Delhi University’s Deshbandhu College he had also been elected president of the Delhi University Teachers’ Association.

Recently he was the party’s all-India election officer for the Assembly elections and for the Delhi Assembly polls he was the convener of the party’s manifesto committee.

Known for his articulate views and frank opinion, Prof. Kohli as a member of the election committee had also made his displeasure known when candidates of his choice were not given tickets. He had gone to the extent of formally distancing himself from the election committee.

Following the BJP’s losses in the Delhi Assembly elections this past month, Dr. Vardhan had conveyed to party president Rajnath Singh and senior leader L. K. Advani that he would like to be relieved of the post at the earliest.

Since Dr. Vardhan belongs to the Vaish community, efforts were initially made to find a suitable candidate from the community itself. But this task appeared easier said than done.

The reason was that of the other senior leaders from the community national general secretary Vijay Goel, who was in the running for the post against Dr. Vardhan last year, had made it known that he would be more keen to contest the Lok Sabha election from Chandni Chowk.

Another senior leader, former Delhi BJP president Mange Ram Garg, lost in the recent Assembly election. Similarly, former MLA Nand Kishore Garg also lost in the polls last month. Another contender, Shyam Lal Garg, did win his election this time but he lacked adequate support.

The name of MCD Standing Committee chairman Vijender Gupta had figured in the discussion but was purportedly opposed by Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra.

It was then that the party decided to nominate Prof. Kohli for the post.

A senior party leader said since both Prof. Malhotra and Prof. Kohli are Punjabis, efforts would be made to give adequate representation to other communities in the other party posts.

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