New Delhi: The central leadership of the BJP has appointed Delhi BJP working president Virendra Sachdeva as its state unit president. Sachdeva was appointed as working president after his predecessor Adesh Gupta resigned after the rout in the Municipal Corporation elections of Delhi in December last year. Since then, Sachdeva was looking at the party’s affairs as a working president. According to sources inside the Delhi BJP unit, Sachdeva was selected for this position because of the “aggressive performance” of the BJP in the Mayoral elections, under his leadership. On 11 December 2022, the central leadership of the BJP accepted the resignation of Adesh Gupta and after that, Sachdeva was given the working president charge on 23 March this year; he was made full-time president by the central leadership of the party.
Amid this period, BJP aggressively performed in the MCD elections and the campaign to corner AAP on liquor policy was launched; during this period, former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia was also arrested.
After taking charge as president, Virender Sachdeva thanked the central leadership of the party and said, “A partition refugee like me becoming the working president of Delhi BJP has created a wave of happiness among other refugees and today this happiness has doubled, thanks to the party leadership.”A Delhi BJP leader said: “He is a grounded man, with a hold on the organization. His three-month stint as working president has proved his mettle.” According to BJP leaders, Sachdeva is known for his softness and “even he is directly connected with workers and personally picks up every call,” a BJP worker said.
Before his elevation as BJP president, Sachdeva held various positions in the state unit, including vice president and president of Chandni Chowk and Mayur Vihar.
BJP targeting Punjabi vote bank
After the advent of AAP in state politics, BJP has lost its grip on the refugee Punjabi vote bank. According to political analysts, the party’s move to choose him is to tap into post-Partition refugee Punjabi voters. The Punjabi community is traditionally a voter of the BJP and Punjabis hold influence on around 25-30 seats in the Assembly, majorly in the western part of the capital. Virender Sachdeva traces his roots in Peshawar Pakistan and after Partition, his family settled in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk. After coming to India, Sachdeva’s family set up a printing business.
Challenges ahead for Sachdeva
Just a year before the general elections, Sachdeva’s crowning as state president brings various challenges for him. Constituting new teams for the election and keeping everyone happy is one of the challenges. “In the last 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP won all seven seats in the capital and out of these seven MPs, five are in their second term and two are first-timers. The BJP has anti-incumbency as a challenge to face in upcoming elections,” said Harinder Rathore, a political analyst. After the Lok Sabha polls, a year will be left for the Delhi Assembly elections. After AAP’s victory in the MCD elections, a challenge here for BJP is to deter AAP both in the Assembly and Municipal Corporation.