New Delhi: Serious differences among the top Delhi BJP leadership came out in the open as the leaders failed to take a final call to decide upon a candidate for the mayoral post of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC).
Unable to finalise the candidates, the BJP-ruled EDMC has now extended the date for filing of nominations for the post of mayor, deputy mayor, and three members of the standing committee to April 18. A well-placed source told this newspaper that the Dehi BJP has sought party president Amit Shah’s intervention in the matter.
Lack of consensus and seeking intervention by Mr Shah raises serious question on the state leadership’s ability to take decision on small but key issues, like finalising the name of the mayoral candidate.
“Our national president, Mr Shah, and other Central leadership are busy and working hard to ensure BJP’s victory in Karnataka Assembly polls. However, the Delhi BJP leadership was unable to select a person to lead the party in the civic body. It put a question mark on the abilities of the state leadership,” said a senior Delhi BJP leader.
Sources claimed that differences over names for mayoral candidates among Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, state in-charge Shyam Jaju, state general secretary (organisation) Sidharthan, and state general secretary Kuljeet Chahal is the reason behind the delay in the selection of the right person for the top post.
It was learnt that on Sunday, the state leadership met Mr Shah to discuss the issue and also met him once again on Monday.
“Due to huge differences among the state leadership, no decision has been taken despite meeting BJP president Mr Shah twice in two days. Not reaching a decision raises question on the ability of the state leadership,” said a senior leader aware of the current developments.
A party insider claimed that there were differences over the selection of mayors and deputy mayors in the other two corporations as well. However, the issue did not come out in the open as the party has already a blanket cover of two days.
“The current development shows that the decision making came to almost a standstill in the Delhi BJP and no one is really concerned about it. With such a huge difference among ourselves, how are we planning to form a government in the national capital by defeating Arvind Kejriwal and his party?” asked a senior party leader.
