BJP launches hunt for poll candidates

With just five months to the municipal elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has begun identifying candidates who could turn the tide in their favour.

With just five months to the municipal elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has begun identifying candidates who could turn the tide in their favour.

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Delhi BJP president Vijender Gupta said the party would judge potential candidates on four parameters — dynamism, performance, capability to win and delivery strength — before releasing the final list.

The party has also commissioned an internal survey to a Gurgaon-based consultancy firm to judge the mood of the electorate. “The survey will also work as performance audit of the incumbent candidates,” said Gupta.

The BJP currently has 172 councillors in a 272-strong MCD, which is India’s largest and world’s second largest civic body after Tokyo. The Congress has 73 while the Bahujan Samaj Party has 16. The remaining 10 are either independent or represent smaller parties.

The municipal elections to be held in Delhi in February 2012 will be the first major elections after the strong anti-corruption movement that took not just Delhi but the entire country by storm in August this year.

The elections are likely to be a litmus test for both the BJP — which is ruling party in the corporation — as well as the Congress — which is in office in the state assembly and has its candidates in the Lok Sabha from all seven parliamentary constituencies in Delhi.

“Corruption and price rice would be the two biggest issues in these elections. The electorate is really concerned with the way the cost of bare necessities has been going up in the last few years,” Gupta said.

While the result of the survey will only be available to the party by October-end, Gupta said that initial results suggested that the BJP would manage to get more seats than it got in the last municipal elections in 2007