MCD polls: Councillors who won bypoll may get BJP ticket

A week ago, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari had announced that the BJP will not give ticket to any sitting councillor. The party has 153 councillors in the three municipal corporations. The councillors have protested the move and are meeting union ministers and central leadership.

A week after announcing that it will not give ticket to any sitting councillor for April 23 MCD elections, the BJP on Wednesday said it may fielf three councillors who had won the municipal bypoll in May last year.

BJP Delhi president Manoj Tiwari with union ministers and senior Delhi leaders Vijay Goel and Dr Harshvardhan. (Arvind Yadav/HT PHOTO)

Sources in the party said the senior state leadership is of the view that their case should be treated as exception otherwise it would not be a ‘fair deal’ for them.

“Following the representation made by the councillors before the central leadership, the party may reconsider its decision of denying tickets to incumbent elected members to three municipal corporations. It would be a kind of injustice to them if they are not given a chance because they had come on board just eight months ago,” said a source.

The by-elections were held on 13 seats and BJP could win only three wards--Shalimar Bagh North (BM Bhandari), Wazirpur (Mahender Nagpal), and Nawada (Krishan Gehlot). The Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had secured five wards each.

Meanwhile, a group of ‘disgruntled’ councillors on Wednesday met union minister Nitin Gadkari and state BJP chief Manoj Tiwari to convey their concerns.

A party insider said Gadkari strictly told them it (denying tickets to them) was a collective decision by all seven Delhi MPs and vetted by party’s national president Amit Shah.

“The performance of all councillors can’t be measure by the same yardstick. This is our main contention. When we met Tiwari, he gave patient hearing to our grievances,” said a councillor from North Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Tiwari said all councillors left “satisfied” after meeting him. “Their only grievance was about the wrong perception being created against them that they were denied ticket because of the corruption allegations. They are being provoked by Congress and AAP,” the BJP leader said.

On Tuesday, 118 councillors held a closed door meeting at the civic centre to decide their strategy to convince party leadership to reconsider its decision. After a six hour long meeting, they went to meet BJP’s national vice presidents Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and Shyam Jaju, who is also incharge of state affairs of Delhi BJP including union sports minister Vijay Goel, Delhi MPs—Parvesh Verma and Maheish Girri.