BJP Primes for Delhi Assembly Poll Victory for Modi ‘Magic’
BJP Counts on ‘Lame-duck’ Delhi Govt as Factor in Polls
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, January 16: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cupboard of poll trophies in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) traditional bastions has an empty slot for Delhi. While the BJP won even Tripura Assembly elections, the Modi magic fails in the national capital poll after poll for the Assembly.
The BJP is well prepared to gain the coveted trophy for Modi’s poll cupboard. The preparation for the Assembly elections seemingly began after the BJP lost power in the MCD in 2022.
Sources said a furious Amit Shah, Union Minister for Home Affairs, had blasted the Lok Sabha MPs of the BJP from Delhi for not helping even councillors win from wards in their respective parliamentary constituencies.
Within the BJP, it’s well-known that Shah’s anger is most dreaded. Within two years, many of the BJP MPs were denied tickets for the Lok Sabha elections. But the BJP still faces the challenge to justify fielding such ex-MPs in the Assembly elections. They were not strong enough to stop the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from winning the MCD elections.
“A lot happened in the last two years in Delhi,” said a BJP strategist. He said that the BJP leaders stayed in ‘pravas (stay)’ in jhuggi-clusters for six months in the run up to the Assembly elections.
But, most importantly, the BJP leader said that the AAP-led government in the city had been lame-duck on accounts of bureaucrats turning against ministers. “Bureaucrats ask ministers for rule books whenever they are given any instructions. Ministers record videos of argumentative bureaucrats in official meetings,” said a journalist who has been covering Delhi government for more than two decades.
Late Sheila Dikshit, former Chief Minister of Delhi, would often cite “multiplicity of authority” in the national capital for any unkept poll promises. The AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal has been speaking of his government not being allowed to work for over five years.
The BJP leaders hope that the people in the city will weigh prospects of a lame-duck government being of no use in case AAP wins the Assembly elections again. The BJP is already promising that the party-led government, if elected, will only add on to schemes of the AAP dispensation. In essence, the BJP is promising an AAP+ government in Delhi.
Reports said that the BJP manifesto may offer bigger sops than AAP. The BJP in Maharashtra already has shown party’s penchant for politics of freebies (Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra is yet to implement the ₹68000 crore annual cost Ladki Bahin Yojna).
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