Journalists told to leave BJP meet, Manoj Tiwari left red-faced

New Delhi: The last day of the Delhi BJP’s executive committee meeting on Tuesday was marred by a major goof-up with Union power minister Piyush Goyal objecting to the presence of media persons who had been invited by the state unit to cover the function.

An embarrassed Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari tried to convince the minister to allow the media persons to cover the function as they had been officially invited by the party’s local unit. However, Mr Goyal insisted that the purpose of his address would be lost in the presence of media persons as he intended to mentor the party workers.

“Our party is in power. So, refrain from leaking information to media because such persons are soon exposed,” Goyal was quoted as saying by a senior party leader who attended the meeting.

Within a few minutes of his address, Mr Goyal asked whether mediapersons were present in the auditorium. When Mr Tiwari and others informed him about the presence of media, Mr Goyal said that talking to the party workers at the executive meet will be lost in their presence and asked them to leave the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry auditorium where the second day of the two-day executive committee meeting was held.

However, upon Mr Tiwari’s request, the Union power minister agreed to speak about the achievements of Narendra Modi government and later on had a closed door talk with the workers. Amid this confusion, the journalists had left their seats and left the auditorium even as some local leaders were seen requesting them to stay.

While the media persons walked out of the auditorium, Mr Goyal was heard saying that it was okay if they were leaving. He said that he was unaware of the presence of media in the meeting. Notably, a Delhi BJP invite sent to the media persons yesterday stated that ‘his (Mr Goyal) session (is) open to media.’

Mr Goyal reached an hour late for the open session that was scheduled at 1 pm. Before his arrival, BJP’s national general secretary Dr Anil Jain addressed the party’s executive committee members in the presence of the journalists.

Party sources present during Mr Goyal’s address told this newspaper that the Union power minister talked about the ongoing conflict between the top leadership in the party and advised that the differences should be discussed within the party forum and not with the media or on the public platform.