Rift appears in Delhi BJP over CM post

Another BJP member Harsh Vardhan told a TV channel that name of CM candidate should be announced

Caught in the vortex of party intrigue, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijay Goel was on Monday forced out of the race for chief ministership of Delhi and was on the verge of taking political ‘sanyaas’, but was prevented from doing so by supporters in the party.

On Monday, Harsh Vardhan, likely to be the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate, told a TV channel the name of the chief ministerial candidate should be announced, leading to protests from Goel’s supporters. Goel would be offered a Lok Sabha seat.

Disheartened Goel supporters blamed party leaders Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari and Arun Jaitley. While Swaraj is  a former chief minister of Delhi, Gadkari is election in-charge and Jaitley part of the Delhi decision-making authority.

The party’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi kept himself out of the squabble, saying he was content to go along with the consensus. Party president Rajnath Singh reportedly said he was helpless, as the others had ganged up against Goel.

Goel is said to be trying to make a final attempt to resolve the situation by knocking at the doors of party patriarch L K Advani. A final decision is likely to be taken on Tuesday.

At a press conference on Monday, Goel said, “I am not a candidate for any post. In the past eight months, I have neither named myself or anybody else. The parliamentary board of the party will decide who will be the chief ministerial candidate.”

He added the party should announce all decisions related to the coming Assembly elections soon, including naming the chief ministerial candidate. When Goel was asked what his reaction would be if the board picked Harshvardhan, he said, “I will answer that when the board has made the decision…The party is supreme. Nothing happens on the basis of what I say. The party will take a final decision.”

Harsh Vardhan, though not known as a particularly charismatic figure, is said to enjoy a clean image. It was under his leadership that the BJP lost the 2008 assembly elections.