NEW DELHI: The party is yet to take a call on the face of the Chief Minister as it gears up for the Assembly elections to be held in the national capital in February next year.
Delhi BJP is still undecided on whether they will go with a face for the post of Chief Minister and if yes, who that will be for the upcoming Assembly elections to be held in February 2025.
Party sources said that the final call on this issue will be taken by the leadership ‘soon’. According to them, the lack of a prominent face to counter Delhi CM and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and the fact that there are factions within the BJP in Delhi are issues that the leadership will consider while deciding on whether to appoint a CM face or fight the election without any name being declared as the CM candidate.
Party insiders said that internal differences were a big problem within the party. According to them, as has been evident in the past, Delhi BJP has not been able to reach a consensus on a single candidate whom they can trust to lead the election campaign. This lack of agreement is due to the presence of competing factions within the party, each backing different potential candidates, leading to uncertainty and indecision.
In the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections, BJP had named former IPS officer Kiran Bedi as their chief ministerial candidate. BJP brought in Bedi, an outsider, to lead the campaign, due to her strong public image and reputation for integrity. However, despite her credentials, the BJP suffered a significant defeat, winning only 3 out of 70 seats, while the AAP secured a landslide victory with 67 seats. This was attributed to her unacceptance in the party and her lack of familiarity with how the party and politics functions.
In the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections, BJP primarily campaigned while keeping the work done by the central government at front with some factions suggesting that the then state president Manoj Tiwari would be appointed as the CM if the BJP wins. Despite this strategy, AAP won a decisive victory, securing 62 out of 70 seats, while the BJP managed to win only 8 seats. This result underscored the challenges the BJP has been facing in overcoming the strong local support for Kejriwal.
However, under Virendra Sachdeva, who was appointed as the state president in March last year, party leaders claim, past issues like lack of coordination among workers and leaders have been resolved now.
Jitendra Mahajan, BJP MLA from Rohtas Nagar, said that the central leadership will decide whether to contest the upcoming Assembly elections with a chief ministerial candidate or using the Prime Minister’s face. However, he assured that the Delhi BJP is ready for the elections. Mahajan emphasised that the Delhi BJP will rely on their grassroots workers who tirelessly support the party, aiming to remove the corrupt Aam Aadmi Party from power and secure victory. He pointed to the recent Lok Sabha election results, where the BJP won all seven seats against the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, as a positive indicator for their chances in the Assembly elections.