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With eye on 2022 MCD polls, Delhi BJP announces new team
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday announced its new state team with an eye on securing a fourth term in the municipal polls scheduled in 2022.
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday announced its new state team with an eye on securing a fourth term in the municipal polls scheduled in 2022. The 46-member team has seven sitting and former councillors, excluding state unit president Adesh Gupta (councillor from west Patel Nagar).
Former youth wing head of Delhi BJP Sunil Yadav, who contested the assembly elections against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal earlier this year, has been made the vice-president. While the party has accommodated Congress and AAP rebels in the new team, BJP leader Kapil Mishra, a former minister in the Arvind Kejriwal government in 2015, didn’t find a place. Mishra has been in the news recently related to his speech in north-east Delhi, a day before communal riots broke out in the area.
Congress rebel Barkha Singh, former Delhi Commission for Women chairperson, and Richa Pandey Misha, former head of AAP’s women’s wing, have been appointed vice-president and spokesperson respectively. Richa Pandey Mishra and Kapil Mishra had joined the BJP together in August last year.
With over a year left for the municipal polls and the AAP stepping up its attack on the BJP, which is ruling all the three civic bodies, Gupta said the new team will be instrumental in “party’s victory once again”.
“This team will work to win the party its fourth consecutive term in the municipal polls. It is a mixed bag with a lot of people with organisational experience and newcomers, youth and members of the SC and OBC communities,” Gupta said.
The party has given key appointments to seven former and sitting councillors, including three former mayors. Former East Delhi mayor Harsh Malhotra has been made the general secretary along with Kuljeet Chahal and Dinesh Pratap Singh. Former East Delhi Mayor Neema Bhagat and former South Delhi Mayor Sunita Kangra has been appointed as secretaries. Of the seven, four are sitting councillors.
The party has also appointed eight leaders who had contested the assembly elections in 2020, including Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga. While Bagga has been retained as the spokesperson along with Harish Khurana and Praveen Shankar Kapoor, Laxmi Nagar MLA Abhay Verma has been made the chief spokesperson of the Delhi BJP.
Party members say that very few people from the old team have been retained. While Rajiv Babbar has been retained as the vice-president, current media in-charge Ashok Goyal has been elevated to the post of vice-president. Virendra Sachdeva, member of the national BJP’s good governance team, has been appointed as the vice-president.
By replacing Purvanchali leader and North East Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari with Gupta as Delhi BJP chief, the BJP had made a move to woo its core support base in the Punjabi-Baniya community. But the party has appointed close to five people from the Purvanchali community in the new team.
There are nine women and two Muslims in the new team.
Sanjay Kumar, director, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), said the in the reorganisation of the Delhi unit, the BJP has tried to strike a balance between two key communities -- Purvanchalis and Baniyas. “By making Gupta the state chief the BJP tried to keep the trading community (its core support base) happy. But at the same time, they have given representation to the Purvanchal community. Though the party’s attempt to woo the Purvanchalis did little good for them, it did play a role in increasing the party’s vote share in the assembly elections, especially in east Delhi. The recent appointments show that they have devised a strategy to keep both the trading community and the Purvanchalis happy.”
