Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The BJP is aiming to put up a tough fight in the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls and is keen on fielding former MPs, and is working on announcing women-centric schemes to woo women’s voters in the national capital, sources told India Today TV.
The BJP, which has been out of power since 1998, wants to capitalise on the AAP government’s 10-year-old anti-incumbency and target it over air pollution, pollution in river Yamuna, water crisis and alleged inflated electricity bills, according to sources.
Top sources in the Delhi BJP unit told India Today TV that the party would like to use the popularity factor of its former MPs. Sources said that the BJP is most likely to field Parvesh Verma, Meenakshi Lekhi and Ramesh Bidhuri against the top leaders of AAP.
According to sources, the BJP is working on announcing more than two big women-centric schemes to woo women voters in Delhi. The announcement for the same is likely to be made just ahead of the party releasing its manifesto for the Assembly polls. Sources further said that the BJP is confident that it will outdo AAP as far as women’s votes are concerned.
“AAP announces freebies and schemes without thinking about revenues. But, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always focussed on schemes by first budgeting them. You budget it, announce it and implement it. Look what happened in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Maharashtra. Our women-centric issues have done wonders because we not only announce it but ensure that it gets implemented on the ground,” a senior BJP leader said.
According to sources, the BJP has decided not to take direct potshots at former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal but capitalise on the anti-incumbency against the AAP government in Delhi. Sources said that attacking Kejriwal will give a lot of prominence to the AAP chief as an individual and the BJP doesn’t want to make it a fight versus Kejriwal.
The party wants to highlight the ‘failed’ promises of the AAP government, such as the water crisis, alleged inflated electricity bills, pollution in the river Yamuna and air pollution, they added.
Top BJP sources also said that the party will focus its campaign more on the ‘Sheeshmahal‘ row, a controversy over the alleged extravagant renovation of Kejriwal’s official bungalow. The party argues that this issue dented the image of AAP leaders, who call themselves ‘aam aadmi’ (common man), they said.
Another senior BJP leader claimed that many AAP MLAs want to join the saffron party. However, the leader said the party is least interested in taking them into its fold as more than 50 sitting MLAs have high anti-incumbency, including Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Atishi.
“Our internal survey says Atishi’s anti-incumbency is lower than Kejriwal and Sisodia. We are also hearing that Sisodia is unlikely to fight from Patparganj and if this happens we are going to win for sure,” the BJP leader claimed.
On Monday, the AAP announced its second list of candidates, fielding Sisodia from Jangpura instead of Patparganj, which will now be contested by educator Avadh Ojha, who recently joined the Kejriwal-led party.
BJP sources further claimed that the party leaders who have joined AAP and have been announced as AAP candidates were willing to join back the party if it announced them as their official candidates from their respective constituencies.
“AAP has one advantage over us that it has only one decision maker who can decide on one go. But in BJP, we have a parliamentary board, which takes decisions on the party’s official candidates,” the unnamed BJP leader said.
According to BJP’s internal survey, the BJP is expected to get more than 50 per cent vote share according to its internal survey, top sources in the party told India Today TV.
“We have had a consistent 30-33 per cent vote share in Delhi but AAP has been winning Assembly polls because it has been getting more than 40 per cent vote share. But now this pattern has been changed since the last MCD elections,” the senior BJP leader said.
“According to our survey, the Congress is gaining ground in Delhi, which will benefit us subsequently. The vote percentage polled against us will be divided between AAP and Congress,” he claimed.
The current term of the Delhi Assembly ends on February 23, 2025.
