Divided We Stand, Together We Fall

There is a popular saying in politics that while Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely and that is precisely what is the case with the BJP in the national capital. The Bharatiya Janata Party has been making tall claims since their poster boy Narendra Modi held a massive rally in Delhi. How much charisma Modi holds outside Gujarat is yet to be tested as wherever he has campaigned till now outside Gujarat, BJP has never won a single seat. However regional politics cannot be dictated by national leaders and it’s a well-known fact that in Delhi, BJP’s poster boy is not Narendra Modi. Then the question arises, who is it?

It is an interesting paradox that the otherwise articulating BJP has gone quiet with their CM candidate in Delhi while speculations tend to creep in. The reason behind it is nothing but a leadership vacumm which is now haunting the BJP in the national capital. Sheila Dixit was already a tall leader to reckon with and the dramatic entry of Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP wouldn’t have been in any better time. Crushed between the two juggernauts, the BJP is clueless and hapless as to how to go about it. Delhi is like an armed fortress, winning which gives you an extra edge in national politics and with the current political dynamics, it seems like Sheila Dixit is going to continue as the sole queen.

However on the other side, grappling with infighting and factionalism, the BJP is desperately search for an escape route. This became evident with senior BJP leader Harsh Vardhan’s name doing the rounds again as the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate in Delhi assembly elections even as a number of senior state leaders have conveyed to the central leadership their unhappiness over the style of functioning of Vijay Goel. Sources in Delhi BJP said a sizable number of party leaders are of the opinion that BJP must have a chief ministerial face to take on charismatic Congress’s Sheila Dixit. Expressing their opposition to Delhi BJP chief Goel, several leaders of the party’s Delhi unit have conveyed to the party’s central leadrship that they will not resist any move to declare Vardhan as the Chief Ministerial candidate.
Interestingly, unfazed by reports of a possible projection of Mr. Vardhan as a front runner for the CM’s post, Delhi BJP President Vijay Goel pitted himself as a widely acceptable face for the Chief Minister’s chair and reiterated that his popularity has been refelected in many opinion polls. He claimed that he has strengthened the party to a great extent and said that a decision based on the issue will be taken by the Parliamentary Board on the basis of opinions of the pary workers as well as that of the public. If sources are to be believed, all of the 14 district presidents today met Nitin Gadkari and expressed their support for the candidacy of Mr. Goel for the top post. 

According to a tweet by Executive Editor of Headlines Today and Aaj Tak, he tweeted ‘Vijay Goel holding 'Shakti Pradarshan' of 200 mandal & block workers at 11AM tomorrow to ward off any attempt to sideline him.’ If true then the BJP would be falling into a big embarrassing situation ahead of the assembly polls next month. Meanwhile the BJP top brass has been jolted by a threat of open rebellion by Mr. Goel, who is learnt to have told senior leaders that he will not work for the party if Dr Harshvardhan is projected as the BJP's chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming polls. He went into active damage control mode moments after reports emerged that the BJP is deciding to project Dr Harshvardhan as the party's face for the Delhi Assembly Elections.

The first round of ticket allocation for the Delhi elections is scheduled for 20 October and the party is likely to take a decision on whether to project a chief ministerial candidate before that. Senior party leader Arun Jaitley is abroad at present and a decision is expected to be taken after his return. The Delhi Assembly Elections are also a matter of prestige for Narendra Modi who has recently been appointed the party's prime ministerial candidate for the next general elections. A setback in Delhi will be seen as a personal loss of face for Modi and the Gujarat Chief Minister is keen that the party put its best foot forward in the Delhi elections. The RSS, which is another important stakeholder in the BJP's decision making process, is of the view that the party should have a leader with a clean image as its chief ministerial candidate but the Sangh does not want infighting to mar the party's chances. Frentic efforts are now on to find a way of breaking the deadlock. The BJP is otherwise known for commenting a lot on other party’s leadership vacumm is today itself facing a storm in their own house and they seems to be no solution to it. With the assembly elections less than a month, it would be interesting to observe which way the wind blows in the national capital.

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