As Sushma Swaraj’s daughter rises, BJP flags ‘winnability’ after Opposition raises ‘parivarvaad’ storm

Earlier in the day, as a section of BJP leaders defended Bansuri’s nomination, saying she had “worked hard and was eligible for the responsibility”, some of Lekhi’s supporters said they were caught unawares by the development and initially claimed they wanted to “make the party realise its error”.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress, too, took the opportunity to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi and accuse him of not walking the talk on the “parivarvaad” issue that he has often used against the BJP’s rivals.

Senior AAP leader and Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj described Bansuri’s nomination as a “living example of parivarvaad” and questioned the BJP’s attacks on the Opposition over the issue. “The BJP has been making tall statements against parivarvaad. Today, if Sushma Swaraj ji’s daughter is being given a ticket, it is a living example of parivarvaad. We too have high regard for Sushma ji but are other parties, which are giving tickets to the kin of leaders who are no more, not eligible for such respect? This shows that there is a huge gap between what the BJP says and does,” Bharadwaj said.

Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed posted on X, “Why is Bansuri Swaraj given a ticket from Delhi? What is her contribution other than Parivarvaad @narendramodi! Don’t point fingers at us!”

The BJP was quick to defend Bansuri, a 39-year-old lawyer who rose in the party’s Delhi unit over the past year before being announced as a candidate for the constituency which her mother “had nurtured as her home turf for decades”. Bansuri’s candidature, the party said, was decided on “winnability”.

Bansuri was appointed the co-convener of the Delhi BJP’s legal cell in March 2023 and was later elevated to the post of secretary. She has also served as a part of the Women20 special engagement group during the G20 Summit, a decision which BJP sources said was taken by the PM himself.

Apart from “winnability”, sources said Bansuri’s bid got a boost as the New Delhi seat, which has 10 Assembly segments under it, includes parts of the erstwhile South Delhi Lok Sabha seat from where Sushma Swaraj was first elected in 1996 and then in 1998. “During the time, Sushma ji also served as the first woman CM of Delhi, albeit for a short period,” a source said.

According to sources, Swaraj, who served as information and broadcasting minister in the 13-day Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, laid the ground for the organisation’s base here. A senior BJP leader hit back at the Opposition saying that five (of seven) candidates declared in Delhi are karyakartas (workers) “who have proved their mettle for this responsibility and enjoy popularity on the ground”.

“What could have the national leadership done after not even a single person in the 28-member organisation of the New Delhi seat voiced their support for Lekhi but unanimously supported Bansuri?” the BJP functionary asked.

The leader said that being the daughter of a late party leader does not discount that Bansuri has been able to garner immense popularity “through sheer hard work in just over a year”. “Members from the BJP’s organisation in the 10 Assembly segments that fall under the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat have been making incessant calls to the top leadership requesting her presence in public events in their constituencies,” the leader said.

Apart from the “hard work and establishment of ground connect”, which helped Bansuri emerge popular in surveys, sources said her nomination got a boost due to Lekhi’s “public gaffes” and “lack of public connect”. Referring to Lekhi, a source said, “Being replaced as an MP is one thing, but losing out despite being a minister is another. In addition to issues related to how Lekhi dealt with people, it was conveyed to the party that she was an absent MP.”

Sources said Lekhi was addressing an organisational meeting in Karol Bagh, one of the Assembly segments falling under the New Delhi seat, when she got the news that she had been replaced. Party insiders who dismissed claims of the MP’s diminished popularity said they were caught unawares by the decision. “Lekhi ji has done a lot of good work for the constituency in her two tenures as MP and raised issues related to civic amenities in slums and urban villages. She was elevated as a minister due to this,” a party leader said.

On claims of her waning popularity, her supporters pointed at her enhanced vote share in 2019. “If she is so unpopular that someone who was inducted into the party less than a year ago is replacing her, what explains that her vote share went up from 47% in 2014 to 55% in 2019?” asked a leader.

The source claimed Lekhi was reprimanded by BJP president J P Nadda last December after a row erupted over a question in Parliament about designating Hamas as a terrorist organisation as she publicly distanced herself from the issue twice. “It led to her diminishing popularity within the party, like the case in her constituency,” the source added.