BJP makes its appreciation of Kapil Mishra formal, picks him for Delhi vice-president

Party sources called Mishra’s appointment a “very significant” organisational development in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha and 2025 Assembly elections, in terms of expanding the BJP’s base in the Capital. They attributed the appointment to Mishra’s “public connect” and “oratory skills”.

Plus, Mishra ticks all the right boxes in terms of “winnability”. He is a Poorvanchali, a community with a significant presence in the Capital. Northeast Delhi MP and fellow Poorvanchali Manoj Tiwari said: “Mishra is a very important addition to party organisation; the BJP has always been his home… I am more than confident that he will bolster the party’s position in Delhi among the significant population from the community that resides here.”

While Mishra is a former AAP MLA from Karawal Nagar, his mother Annapurna Mishra continues to be with the BJP and is a former Delhi mayor.

A senior BJP leader said that Mishra’s appointment, announced incidentally three days after the party made changes to 65 posts and unveiled a “new team”, was a long time coming. “Kapil has been associated with the party for several years and his formal appointment was just a matter of time,” the leader said.

He added: “In terms of merit, his oratory skills and public connect are precisely what the party needs when it comes to expanding our support base down to the booth level. Virendraji (BJP Delhi president Virendra Sachdeva) is also understood to have been in favour of his appointment, given his anti-corruption credentials, which will help us go against the AAP more aggressively over the issue of graft.”

According to a senior leader, Mishra specifically drew the senior leadership’s attention for the crowds he drew in Gujarat during last year’s Assembly elections in the state. “He turned out to be a major crowd-puller during individual public meetings organised for him, which certainly went in his favour as far as proving his popularity is concerned,” a party leader said.

Mishra had a dramatic exit from the AAP after accusing most of its leaders, including its convenor and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and then minister Satyendra Jain, of corruption. Two years before he left, Mishra had been removed as Water and Tourism Minister by the AAP.

After he left the AAP, he was disqualified as an MLA, and days later, formally joined the BJP. The party fielded him from Model Town in the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections, but Mishra failed to win in the polls that were swept by the AAP.

Soon after, Mishra’s name figured in the context of the northeast Delhi riots, when he was captured on camera serving anti-CAA protesters in Jaffrabad an “ultimatum” to clear the streets. Mishra later unequivocally refused to express regret for his words, which were alleged to have incited violence in the area, adding that he would do what he did again if a similar situation arose in the future.

Since then, Mishra has campaigned for the BJP across the country during elections.

In his personal capacity, he holds fund-collection drives for “Hindu victims” of incidents triggered, according to him, by a “jihadi mindset”, undertakes maintenance of neighbourhood shrines as part of a “temple-cleaning drive” on the first Sunday of every month, and rubs shoulders often with Hindutva ideologues.

Mishra has also ensured his voice is heard on every recent controversy, including around the film The Kashmir Files, the violence in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, during a Ram Navami procession, and following the Nuh clashes when he backed the VHP and Bajrang Dal.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Mishra expressed gratitude to the BJP’s national leadership for making him Delhi vice-president. “I want to thank Narendra Modiji, Amit Shahji, J P Naddaji and Virendra Sachdevaji… I will wholeheartedly work towards delivering on whatever responsibility that they choose to assign me,” he said.

Asked if he had any strategy in mind to expand the BJP’s footprint in Delhi, Mishra said, “That is for the party to decide. Personally, I have always worked towards the goal of ridding Delhi of corruption and my battle will continue.”