New Delhi: In a political resolution passed in its state executive meeting Saturday, the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said it pondered over its shortcomings vis-à-vis the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections and will work on course correction, besides focusing on winning all seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital in 2024.
According to sources, Delhi BJP working president Virendra Sachdeva told workers that the party would have retained control of the municipal corporation had the state unit’s ‘media environment and psyche’ been strong. In the polls held last month, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) emerged with 134 and the BJP with 104 councillors in the 250-member MCD house.
The political resolution passed by Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Legislative Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri also mentioned graft charges against the Arvind Kejriwal-led government, including those levelled against Delhi Health minister Satyendar Jain.
दिल्ली भाजपा की दो दिवसीय कार्यकारिणी आज डॉ. अम्बेडकर इंटरनेशनल सेंटर में सम्पन्न हुई। pic.twitter.com/uXnIy5Y2nw
— BJP Delhi (@BJP4Delhi) January 28, 2023
Reiterating what was discussed in the meet, a Delhi BJP leader told ThePrint on condition of anonymity, “Though we are a party of every section, but with changes in demography, we have to reach out to all sections of society and create a good image of the party among the poorest.”
“We need to reach out to marginalised sections in the capital where AAP has a stronghold because of its freebie politics. These sections have to be brought into the mainstream,” the leader added.
During the meet held at Dr Ambedkar International Centre, Delhi BJP general secretary (organisation) Siddharthan advised workers to exercise greater discipline, while BJP national general secretary Sunil Bansal said the unit should aim to develop capable cadres.
Referring to Delhi’s role in the political history of the BJP, Union minister Anurag Thakur asked workers to convince voters that ‘corruption’ is part of the AAP’s ideology. Delhi, he added, helped spread the BJP’s ideology across the country since its Jana Sangh days and gave the party leaders like Arun Jaitley, Sahib Singh Verma, Hansraj Gupta, Mange Ram Garg and Kalka Dass who expanded its base among different sections of society.
“There is neither dearth of workers nor lack of leadership in Delhi, only the workers of Delhi have to take a new sankalp (resolution) and uproot the corrupt and chaotic Arvind Kejriwal government from Delhi in the 2025 assembly elections,” Thakur was quoted as saying.
The Delhi BJP also discussed ways to popularise central government schemes and how they are benefiting voters, such as the provision of 150 electric buses to Delhi under the FAME-2 scheme and free ration to more than 60 lakh migrants. Emphasis was also laid on informing voters that the Modi government is developing the Yamuna Riverfront, and convincing them that the river has become more polluted since the AAP came into power in Delhi.
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What did Delhi BJP resolution say
Shifting the focus back to last month’s MCD polls, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said the unit took note of its shortcomings and discussed how it can further strengthen itself in the national capital.
“Despite the negative media campaigning against us, we won in (wards in) 26 seats out of 68 assembly seats during the MCD elections. We are now focusing on how to reach from 26 to 56 seats,” said Sachdeva. In its resolution, the Delhi BJP also said how despite having a majority in the MCD house, the AAP has not been able to elect one of its own as the mayor.
“We are going to focus on Kejriwal government’s corruption. There have been multiple scams and even citizens of Delhi now know AAP because of its scams,” said Sachdeva. Adding, “AAP either wins with majority as seen in Delhi and Punjab or lose their deposit as seen in Gujarat or Himachal. This was the first election (MCD) in which it had to struggle.”
In its political resolution, the Delhi BJP also accused Kejriwal of ‘hurting sentiments of Hindus’ with his handling of the Rajendra Pal Gautam controversy.
Gautam, the AAP MLA from Seemapuri, had to resign as a minister in the Delhi government over his participation in a ‘Buddha Dhamma Diksha’ event during which he, among others, denounced Hindu gods and goddesses. Delhi MP Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma noted that the Kejriwal government sought Gautam’s resignation but inducted Raj Kumar Anand, who was also an organiser of the same event, into the council of ministers in his place.
In addition, the resolution talked about the ‘failed education model’ in Delhi while noting that the AAP government did not build a single school in the last eight years despite being given 13 new plots by the central government. It also mentioned the 2020 report of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) which pointed out “glaring irregularities” in the construction of over 2,400 classrooms in Delhi government-run schools.
The Kejriwal government has even failed to ensure timely dispersal of salaries to employees of the 12 colleges that fall under the purview of the Delhi government, the Delhi BJP resolution went further to add.
The resolution also noted that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is yet to respond to claims made by conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar who had accused Satyendar Jain of demanding ‘protection money’ from him. Bidhuri emphasised that the Delhi BJP has noted how Jain continues to avail the benefits of office despite being lodged at Tihar jail.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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