29 senior BJP leaders tasked with shortlisting Delhi MCD poll candidates

The filing for nomination will start from today, but BJP leaders said the state unit will send the list to central leadership in 2-3 days' time.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has tasked 29 senior leaders to get names of probable candidates for the municipal elections after meeting local units on Monday. Teams of four party leaders each, including two from the central leadership and two state leaders, will be holding meeting with local unit leaders in party’s 14 districts in Delhi on Monday to identify probable names, said a senior party leader.

The BJP, which is eyeing a fourth term in the municipal corporation, is working out a strategy to counter the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which emerged as the principal opposition party in corporations in its election debut in 2017 municipal polls. (HT Archive)

Leaders who will be holding the meeting include Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha president and MP Tejasvi Surya, former Haryana minister Capt Abhimanyu, BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde, party’s IT cell head Amit Malviya, Rajya Sabha MP Laxmikant Bajpai, and BJP minority morcha national president Jamal Siddiqui, among others.

“They will interact with past and present district and mandal (BJP has 270 mandals at the ward level) presidents and other office bearers,” a BJP functionary said. “The 14 teams will meet around 1,500 grassroots leaders to identify probable candidates by tomorrow evening. The list will then be sent to the central leadership.”

While the filing for nomination will start from today, BJP leaders said the state unit will send the list to central leadership in 2-3 days' time. On Saturday, BJP national general secretary, organisational, BL Santosh held a meeting with senior Delhi leaders regarding election preparations, the functionary said, requesting anonymity.

The BJP, which is eyeing a fourth term in the municipal corporation, is working out a strategy to counter the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which emerged as the principal opposition party in corporations in its election debut in 2017 municipal polls. The ruling party in Delhi has been running a sustained campaign against the BJP, which has ruled the corporations for 15 years, on sanitation.

To counter the AAP, the BJP started a door-to-door campaign on November 1 which it stepped up on Sunday. Senior party leaders, including Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta, are reaching out to people to tell them about the Arvind Kejriwal government’s failure to address the air pollution problem despite the AAP being in power in both Delhi and Punjab.

The pollution problem is one of the key issues the party is raising in its campaigns to corner the Kejriwal government. The BJP started a hashtag, #PollutionOnKejriwalGone, on Twitter against the Delhi government’s inability to tackle rising air pollution levels. Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta tweeted, “I am not responsible for converting Delhi into Gas Chamber. I didn’t vote for AAP! #PollutionOnKejriwalGone.”

Senior party leaders said that the allegations of corruption in the past few months in excise, Delhi Jal Board, DTC bus, etc, will be highlighted by the party. The recent letters by con man Sukesh Chandrasekher targeting chief minister Kejriwal has given the BJP yet another opportunity to target Kejriwal’s promise of providing corruption free and honest government.

Minister of state for external affairs and New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi launched a scathing attack on Kejriwal while referring to the letters by the con man. She also requested Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena and the Delhi government to immediately transfer Delhi minister Satyendar Jain to some other Jail.

Addressing a press conference on Sunday, Lekhi alleged that Jain was indulging in “extortion” of money from inside the jail, referring to the letter by Sukesh.

“I request the Delhi LG, Delhi government and judiciary to transfer Jain to some other jail outside Delhi as he could misuse his position as a minister to continue extorting money,” said Lekhi.

A spokesperson for AAP declined comment on the matter.