Change in Delhi BJP’s top post ahead of polls; party plans to bring in SC or OBC leader

Last week, lawmakers from the BJP and the Opposition faced off outside Parliament. While BJP MPs alleged that Ambedkar was “insulted” by the Congress, and shouted slogans that “the country won’t tolerate Ambedkar’s insult”, Congress members protested against Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks on Ambedkar in Rajya Sabha.

A party source said, “There is a gradually strengthening view within the party that a leader from the SC/ST/OBC community — who could likely be a Delhi Lok Sabha MP — be appointed working president since (current state chief) Virendra (Sachdeva) ji is likely to be fielded in the polls.”

“In addition to some senior leaders, the party’s activities related to the election are already being managed by our seven Delhi MPs. Several probables have been discussed for the potential handover including those of Northwest Delhi MP Yogender Chandoliya, West Delhi MP Kamaljeet Sehrawat and former Rajya Sabha MP Dushyant Gautam among others,” the source added.

While Sehrawat belongs to the Jat community which has significant representation in the Capital in terms of its demographics and is among the oldest communities residing in Delhi, Gautam, who is the BJP’s national vice-president and a former Rajya Sabha MP, belongs to the SC community as does Chandoliya.

According to BJP sources, another reason for the ongoing delay in announcing candidates for the city’s 70 Assembly constituencies was “lack of options” on certain seats.

“There are several seats where, on the basis of both ongoing surveys as well as the party’s vote share in previous elections, we are on a strong footing. However, there is either a mismatch between the support for the party and whom it wants to give a ticket or the other way around,” said a senior party leader.

“While this is understood to have delayed the process, we also need to accommodate leaders who have joined us from other parties between the Lok Sabha elections and now. Several such leaders continue to have a good hold on the respective seats that they represented in the past and could be fielded against prominent sitting AAP MLAs or ministers,” the leader also said.

The BJP’s Central Election Committee, which is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to sources, was likely to meet this week for the crucial, and final, vetting of candidates before the announcement of their names.