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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) not only jettisoned its strategy of not announcing a chief ministerial candidate in recent assembly elections, but plumped for a 'safety first' approach when it declared its list of candidates for the Delhi assembly polls late on Monday night. The decisions by the BJP Parliamentary Board indicated the seriousness of the challenge mounted by Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
After the meeting attended by PM Narendra Modi and other senior leaders, BJP President Amit Shah announced that former Indian Police Service officer Kiran Bedi will indeed be the BJP's chief ministerial candidate for the Delhi Assembly polls.
Bedi, however, will not contest against Kejriwal, but from the 'safe' seat of East Delhi's Krishna Nagar. Shah said this was to allow Bedi to campaign for party candidates across Delhi. Krishna Nagar has been held by union Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan since 1993. Party's Central Election Committee finalised the names of 62 of the 70 seats. It will announce its candidates for the remainder of the seats on Tuesday, including the number of seats it plans to give to its Punjab ally Shiromani Akali Dal. The last date for filing nominations is Wednesday, January 21.
Senior BJP leader J P Nadda said the party has given representation to all section of the society. The list included six women and 13 Dalits. Delhi has 12 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes. Nine of these were won by AAP in 2013 assembly polls, and the BJP is keen to dent its Dalit vote base.
On Monday, the party also inducted two time Congress MP and union minister Krishna Tirath. The party has decided to field Tirath, the preeminent Dalit leader of the Congress in Delhi, from the reserved Patel Nagar constituency. The party also set aside key seats to imports from AAP. Vinod Binni, who was expelled from AAP for speaking out against Kejriwal, will face former comrade Manish Sisodia on the Patparganj seat. Another former AAP MLA and Speaker in the previous Delhi assembly M S Dhir will contest on a BJP ticket. Interestingly, party's Delhi unit president Satish Upadhayay will not contest the assembly polls. Last week, Kejriwal had disclosed documents to allege Upadhyay's links with Delhi's private power distribution companies, terming it conflict of interest.
Announcement of Bedi's name came late Monday night at the conclusion of the BJP's Parliamentary Board meeting. Shah blamed the media for having "twisted" statements by party unit leaders to create a perception that there was discontent on Bedi's name within the party. "The cadre from top to bottom agrees with our decision (to make Bedi BJP's CM candidate)," Shah said.
BJP had not announced any chief ministerial candidate for the recent assembly polls in Jharkhand, Haryana, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir. The changed strategy indicates the serious challenge the party believes that Kejriwal led AAP poses in Delhi. Recent opinion polls predict either a very slim BJP victory or a photo-finish between AAP and BJP resulting in a hung assembly.
But Shah said party strategy can vary from one election to another. He said BJP contested Rajasthan assembly elections of end-2013 under the leadership of Vasundhara Raje, Madhya Pradesh assembly elections with Shivraj Chouhan as its CM candidate and the 2014 Lok Sabha polls with Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.
The BJP President also said the party has given opportunities to "outsiders" in the past, pointing out the example of Major General (retired) B C Khanduri who was made the CM of Uttarakhand in 2000.
The polls in Delhi are scheduled for February 7.
