 "Delhi candidate selection becomes a headache for BJP")
The candidate selection for Delhi’s seven seats has become a headache for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The party, wiser from the shock the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) handed it in the assembly election, wants to field fresh faces in the national capital but its old guard isn’t willing to bow out from the race.
Former BJP President Nitin Gadkari is the incharge of party affairs in Delhi and has been entrusted with the job of candidate selection in consultation with Delhi unit chief Harsh Vardhan. A party source privy to the process bemoaned the onerous task the two men were saddled with.
The source said both Gadkari and Vardhan want to field new faces. “This would be the only way to defeat AAP candidates but our city veterans aren’t making it easy by throwing their hats in the ring, and then, there is a paucity of credible new faces willing to jump in the fray after knowing what happened in the 2013 assembly elections,” said the source, adding the party would need to take some tough decisions.
The party doesn’t want to field any of the old guard. It has tried to reason with them that there was a chance if the party does well in the Lok Sabha in Delhi that some AAP MLAs defect to join the BJP, to give it the necessary numbers in the assembly.
Former BJP President Nitin Gadkari is the incharge of party affairs in Delhi and has been entrusted with the job of candidate selection in consultation with Delhi unit chief Harsh Vardhan. A party source privy to the process bemoaned the onerous task the two men were saddled with.
The source said both Gadkari and Vardhan want to field new faces. “This would be the only way to defeat AAP candidates but our city veterans aren’t making it easy by throwing their hats in the ring, and then, there is a paucity of credible new faces willing to jump in the fray after knowing what happened in the 2013 assembly elections,” said the source, adding the party would need to take some tough decisions.
The party doesn’t want to field any of the old guard. It has tried to reason with them that there was a chance if the party does well in the Lok Sabha in Delhi that some AAP MLAs defect to join the BJP, to give it the necessary numbers in the assembly.