Disquiet within BJP over Delhi poll ticket to Ramesh Bidhuri, talks held on ‘shifting, if not cancelling’ candidature

After remaining below the radar for months, Bidhuri was slowly making a comeback. On Saturday, he secured a ticket against Delhi Chief Minister Atishi from her home turf of Kalkaji for the February 5 Assembly elections.

However, a day later, his comments about Atishi and Congress Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra triggered a backlash and sparked a chatter within the party about a possibility of a woman candidate replacing him.

First, while talking about the condition of roads in Kalkaji, Bidhuri said that “just like we improved roads in Okhla and Sangam Vihar, we will definitely make all roads in Kalkaji as smooth as Priyanka Gandhi’s cheeks”.

He then targeted Atishi for dropping her surname Marlena and using Singh instead. “Marlena has become Singh… She changed her father. She was Marlena earlier, but has become Singh now,” he said. Atishi dropped her surname in 2018. Her father is former Delhi University teacher Vijay Singh.

As the remarks caused an uproar and drew a swift response from the AAP and the Congress, Bidhuri quickly apologised the same day. He also took to X to express “regret”, tagging BJP national president J P Nadda, Delhi BJP in charge Baijayant Panda, and Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva in the post.

“Some people are making statements on social media for political gains with a wrong perception based on a statement given by me in some context. My intention was not to insult anyone. But still, if anyone has been hurt then I express my regret,” he wrote.

A BJP source said, “Not just against Atishi, Rameshji’s statement on Priyanka Gandhi Vadra… led to his being reprimanded by Naddaji within minutes…”

BJP insiders said that since Sunday, there had been at least two organisational meetings about the possibility of either “shifting, if not cancelling (the candidature of)” the South Delhi-based Gujjar strongman, who is a two-time Lok Sabha MP and three-time MLA.

“Eyebrows were already being raised regarding the decision to field him from Kalkaji that has a relatively negligible rural population compared to constituencies such as Tughlakabad, named after the village he belongs to, and more upper middle class and Punjabi voters. His back-to-back statements have added to these doubts,” said a senior BJP leader.

Apart from Atishi, who broke down during a press conference on Monday while responding to the comments, Bidhuri’s other rival in Kalkaji is Congress’s Alka Lamba, the All India Mahila Morcha president.

Sources said several “potential women replacements” had figured in discussions on the way forward but these talks were “only at a preliminary level” at the moment. “The AAP has turned the narrative around to its advantage not only in Kalkaji but across the city,” said another leader. Many, however, felt that given no precedent for such a move — that is of either replacing or removing a candidate announced by the BJP on a particular seat — Bidhuri was “very likely to continue” to contest the election from Kalkaji.

“Leaders such as former New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi, state unit vice president Yogita Singh, or Manpreet Kaur Kalka can turn the situation around,” the leader added.

Bidhuri’s rise to prominence

A part of the RSS since childhood, Bidhuri is known to be a regular visitor to the local shakha even now. In college, he was with the ABVP, the student outfit affiliated to the Sangh. After completing his BCom degree, Bidhuri pursued law at Chaudhary Charan Singh University in Meerut.

As his rise through the ranks of the BJP continued, he “got close to senior party leaders, including Rajnath Singh”, and held important positions such as Delhi BJP general secretary and vice-president.

Bidhuri contested the Delhi Assembly elections on a BJP ticket in 1993 but lost and was unsuccessful again in 1998. He was elected Tughlakabad MLA in 2003 and retained the seat again in 2008 and 2013, before successfully winning South Delhi Lok Sabha election in 2014 and 2019.