Despite Lok Sabha sweep, BJP sees Delhi polls as tall order
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- Category: Delhi political News
- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 20:59
Despite Lok Sabha sweep, BJP sees Delhi polls as tall order
With assembly elections to be held in four states later this year, including Delhi which is under President's Rule since the resignation of the Arvind Kejriwal government, the BJP leadership considers the electoral battle in the capital the most difficult task for the party. Apart from Delhi, polls are to be held in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir.
While infighting within the Delhi BJP has been a worry for the leadership, senior leaders admit that the party also suffers from the lack local leaders with a "clean image". The rise of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi and neighbouring Haryana and Punjab has been credited to a great extent to the "corrupt" image of both Congress and BJP units in these states, says BJP's top election strategists.
With Congress virtually out of the picture as was evident during the assembly and Lok Sabha polls, AAP is the main rival for BJP."The main problem in Delhi is that our workers here have lost the connect with the people and their image is very poor. Unfortunately, most local level leaders are not long time party workers or professionals like teachers and doctors who interact with the common man in their daily lives.
Rather, many of them are builders and power brokers who have no connect with the people. The face of the party, its image has to change," admitted a senior BJP leader and strategist for the party, elaborating why Delhi is a tough call. While BJP, which fielded quite a few first-timers in the capital, won all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, the party sees it more as a mandate for 'Modi as PM' and feels the assembly polls will be a different ball game. Party leaders feel voters are unlikely to be driven by the Modi factor for the state polls.
BJP chief Rajnath Singh had called a meeting of senior leaders, including ministers and office bearers, on Wednesday, to discuss strategy for the assembly polls. But the meeting was called off following the train accident in Bihar. The party is also looking at the prospects of assembly polls in Jharkhand, Assam and Uttarakhand, earlier than scheduled.
source:timesofindia