Balanced BJP list covers all bases

This was the first instance that the list of Parliamentary candidates was released from any place other than the BJP headquarters at Ashoka Road. Though BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani was in the city,he was not present at the meeting. Insiders,however,claim it was on Advani’s insistence that the BJP finally came out with its list. According to them,he was not happy with the choice of Vijay Goel for the New Delhi seat,but decided to stay away from the decision-making process.

Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijay Kumar Malhotra,who has been part of all meetings on Delhi,too,was not invited for the meeting.

The first discussion for Delhi was held on January 26 and ever since a tug of war had been on,with West Delhi and New Delhi seats being the bones of contention. Late Sahib Singh Verma’s son Parvesh Verma had been lobbying for the West Delhi seat. Verma had earlier turned down an offer to contest Assembly elections in favour of the Lok Sabha elections. West Delhi is among the seats where BJP has an edge over the Congress. Senior MLA Jagdish Mukhi,too,wanted the same seat. Senior leaders had offered Mukhi to fight from New Delhi,but he declined. He had clarified to senior leaders that if he was not given West Delhi,he would not contest this time.

With Verma out,the BJP does not have any Jat leader to oppose Congress’ Jat candidate Sajjan Kumar,who is likely to contest from South Delhi. Till the last moment the party was sure of Verma’s candidature from West Delhi,but things changed. Even Verma’s proximity with L K Advani’s son did not help him. “The party wanted to have at least one Punjabi candidate; they had to accommodate Jagdish Mukhi. Verma had declined to fight from South Delhi so there was no choice left,” said a senior leader. Soon after the announcement,Verma told the media that he was “feeling suffocated in the party”. Jat leaders,too,are angry with the move. Hundreds of his supporters assembled at his house in Tuglaq Lane.

The list also comes as a pat for Vijay Goel who had been struggling for the New Delhi seat for a long time. Senior leaders were not able to make up their minds about his candidature. In the last meeting held between L K Advani,Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley on March 13,it was decided that Goel should fight from Chandni Chowk. “I was always the first choice,it just took a long time to decide,” Goel said after his selection.

With Goel’s berth in New Delhi confirmed,Vijender Gupta,a Goel protege,has hit the jackpot. Till a few days ago,his future looked bleak since Goel was being pushed back to Chandni Chowk. On Thursday,soon after the announcement of the list,Goel and Gupta were the first ones to reach the BJP headquarters.

Another surprise move was the selection of senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad activist B L Sharma ‘Prem’ for the North-East Delhi seat. Till Wednesday,Prem was not even a BJP member. The 80-year-old candidate had won election from East Delhi in 1991 and 1995,defeating Congress stalwarts H K L Bhagat and Deep Chand Bandhu. He had resigned in 1997,claiming that “politics is like prostitution”. “I have travelled across India as a member of the VHP,but people told me that I would be able to put across my views better in Parliament. I did not even ask for the ticket,” Prem told Newsline.

Two-time MLA Ramesh Bidhuri will be contesting from South Delhi. Senior leaders wanted Parvesh Verma,who inherited Sahib Singh Verma’s Jat legacy,to contest from this seat. South Delhi has over one lakh Jat population.

Former cricketer Chetan Chauhan defeated former Delhi chief minister Dr Harsh Vardhan to get a ticket from East Delhi. Vardhan was not keen to fight Lok Sabha elections. East Delhi is one of the weakest seats for the BJP. In Assembly elections,the Congress was ahead by more than two lakh votes in the area. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s son Sandeep Dikshti is likely to contest from here.

The only seat in which there had been a consensus in the BJP since the very beginning was North-West Delhi,which has been given to Meera Kanwaria.

Delhi Police to film all poll functions
In the wake of the controversy stirred by Varun Gandhi’s hate speech in Pilibhit and his subsequent reply to the Election Commission about the tapes of his speech being doctored,the Delhi electoral office is taking steps to avoid similar incidents in the Capital. Chief Electoral Officer Satbir Silas Bedi has directed the Delhi Police to videograph every political function that is given permission over the next month and a half. While the returning officer appointed for every area is usually responsible for filming election functions,Bedi has asked the police to shoot these functions at its own level and submit a copy to the returning officer. The Delhi Police is the agency that gives permissions to hold public functions in the district.

WHO GETS WHAT
Vijay Goel
New Delhi
Three-time MLA Vijay Goel has earlier fought from the Sadar Bazaar and Chandni Chowk. In 2004,he lost Lok Sabha elections from Sadar Bazaar seat to Jagdish Tytler. During the NDA government,Goel has served as a minister of state. His father Charti Lal Goel was a leading taxation lawyer who had gone on to become the deputy mayor and speaker of the Delhi Assembly.

Jagdish Mukhi
West Delhi
One of the senior-most BJP MLAs,he has won elections four times,consecutively,from Janakpuri constituency. He had also served as finance minister during the BJP government in 1993. His political career began in 1979 when he was elected to the Metropolitan Council of Delhi from Janakpuri as a Janata Party candidate.

Ramesh Bidhuri
South Delhi
A two-time MLA from Tughlakabad,Bidhuri runs a business of stone crushing and transport. Bidhuri joined the BJP in 1993 and contested from Tughlakabad but lost the election and also the next one in 1998. He won both 2003 and 2008 Assembly elections.

Meera Kanwaria
North-West Delhi
Once the principal of a government-aided school in West Delhi,she was Delhi’s mayor between 1997 and 2002. A two-time councillor,Kanwaria had lost the 2006 MCD elections. She challenged the result in court and subsequently won in the byelection.

Vijender Gupta
Chandni Chowk
The 45-year-old chairman of MCD’s Standing Committee is serving his third term as a BJP councillor. He was the leader of the opposition during the last two terms when Congress was in power in the MCD. Gupta is expected to get the support of the trading community,which consists more than 24 per cent of the total population in the area.

B L Sharma ‘Prem’
North-East Delhi
A member of the Viswa Hindu Parishad,his political career took off in the late ’80s during the ‘mandir andolan’. In one famed contest,he defeated Congress leader H K L Bhagat from East Delhi in 1991. He was re-elected in 1995 from the same seat. His exit from politics in 1997 was equally eventful; he left claiming that “politics is like prostitution”. He resigned from party membership too and retired to Haridwar,converting to Sikhism a few months later. Away from active politics for several years,he returned to the party only on Wednesday.

Chetan Chauhan
East Delhi
A former Test cricketer and two-time MP from Amroha (1991 and 1998),Chauhan lost the seat in the 1996,1999 and the 2004 general elections. He is at present the vice-president of Delhi & District Cricket Association.

Compiled by Sukalp Sharma