 "Vijay Goel's Delhi CM dream thwarted once again")
In 2007, it won the Municipal Council of Delhi (MCD) election and yet, barely a year after that victory, it allowed the Congress to form a government in the state for a third time.
In April 2012, the Congress-led state government trifurcated the MCD, believing it would wrest control of the local bodies because the BJP would have to fight three elections instead of one. The BJP won that election as well, though its numbers went down. And once again, because the claimants of the municipal victory are many, the BJP is dangerously close to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in the upcoming elections to the Assembly, due later this year.
More From This Section
The politics of the BJP in Delhi revolves around five leaders and their groups. The most important is Vijay Goel, followed by Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Arti Mehra, Vijendra Gupta, Harsh Vardhan and Pravesh Verma. The story begins in post-Partition politics in Delhi when the traditional Jana Sangh leadership of Delhi was dominated by a compact of Punjabi settlers and the traditional Vaishya elite of Delhi. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was the Punjab group that came to dominate: via a troika of Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Madan Lal Khurana and Kidar Nath Sahani. Vijay Goel who succeeded Arun Jaitley as president of the Delhi University Students' Union and the BJP's Yuva Morcha, sought to carry the banner of the Vaishya following within the BJP. At every stage, he found himself obstructed. It was only natural, therefore, that he should have sought to engage the BJP's national leadership for protection from state leaders. Pramod Mahajan became a patron, later Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh. This was politics, but what he really wanted was to be recognised as a force in Delhi.
In 1986 he started an NGO called Lok Abhiyan, using which he launched an agitation against single-digit lotteries that had destroyed hundreds of families in their pursuit of illusory wealth. Parliament passed a unanimous resolution as a result of Goel's campaign, condemning such lotteries.
In 1991, then party strategician Govindacharya decided to put the Punjabi domination of Delhi BJP to test: he got an "outsider" O P Kohli, till then involved only in Delhi University Teachers' Association politics, to head the Delhi unit of the party. Goel sought to contest the Lok Sabha election from the Chandni Chowk constituency but following protests from V K Malhotra, the seat was given to Tarachand Khandelwal. But Goel would not be denied and from 1998 till 2004, he contested and held the Chandni Chowk seat in the Lok Sabha. Because of his proximity and good relations with national leaders, he became Minister of state in PMO during Atal Behari Vajpayee's prime ministership. His clout in Delhi politics grew proportionately.
The appointment of Kidar Nath Sahani as governor, Madan Lal Khurana's resignation in 1996 following the Jain hawala case and the appointment of Sahib Singh Verma as chief minister (1996-98) marked the virtual end of Punjabi domination of the Delhi BJP. This created a vacuum that Vijay Goel tried to fill again. But once again, he was blocked in his efforts. Harsh Vardhan was propped up by those who had always opposed him. In 2006, Verma died in a road accident and his son, Pravesh Sharma thought he would be the right person to succeed his father as a representative of Jats and rural Delhi. So there was another contender for power in Delhi.
By the time the 2008 Assembly elections came along, Goel thought he was the natural choice to head the campaign and the party against Sheila Dikshit. But top national leaders opposed his candidature. Party President Rajnath Singh offered him a consolation prize: general secretaryship of the party. Goel accepted.
Others were snapping at his heels. The 2007 civic bodies election was won, Arti Mehra thought, by her. So did Harsh Vardhan and V K Malhotra.
All these leaders thought Vijay Goel was their nearest competitor. Goel refused to be cowed down. He was named party president in February this year. He is now trying to bring the Dalits into the BJP fold (he held a huge public community meal where top leaders of the BJP sat side by side with Dalits from various parts of Delhi, eating from the same table); he has promised 4 per cent reservation in colleges affiliated to Delhi University to students from Delhi; and has launched a jhuggi jhonpri campaign (in situ development of slums) as the answer to the Congress's regularisation of slum colonies.
Goel has the charisma of a turtle. He makes up with hard work. He has no pretensions of a vision for Delhi. But he does have a solid core following. But this was not enough to convince the leadership on his ability to capture Delhi.