Rift In Delhi Bjp Over Civic Polls List

The BJP and the Congress, the two major political parties in Delhi, face widespread dissidence over the distribution of tickets for the forthcoming elections for a new Delhi Municipal Corporation next month.

The Congress managed to tide over many of the rifts and finalised its list of candidates yesterday, but the BJP appeared to be hamstrung and could not announce a single name until last night. Today is the last date for filing nominations.

The 134 corporators would have more local influence than Delhis 70 MLAs, as they will be directly responsible for development in their respective areas and would get funds likewise. The municipal elections are taking place after 14 years.

The stakes are so high that the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), which normally prefers the role of mediator rather than active participant in ticket distribution, lobbied intensely this time for candidates who had strong affiliations with the Sangh Parivar.

Some BJP leaders admitted privately that the crisis in the partys state unit has been deepened due to the RSSs continuous intervention at the time of deciding the BJPs nominees.

Besides intervention by the Sanghs in-charge for Delhi, Ramesh Prakash, senior BJP leaders had at least two rounds of meeting at the RSS headquarters here to resolve the impasse over names of candidates.

The acts of indiscipline witnessed by the party this time has surpassed the record of earlier times, a senior party leader said, adding that most of the indiscipline can be attributed to heightened factionalism among the senior BJP leaders who have been at the helm at the partys Delhi unit.

Some of the ticket seekers openly challenged the partys senior leaders, hurled abuses and warned they would contest as rebel candidates if denied partys nominations, he said. Such acts of indiscipline was unheard of in the BJP a couple years before, he added.

Three members of the seven member committee, former Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana, state BJP president Kedar Nath Sahani and Rajya Sabha member Vijay Kumar Malhotra worked actively to deny ticket to candidates recommended by the other group represented by Chief Minister Saheb Singh Verma, former state president Om Prakash Kohli and Lok Sabha member KL Sharma, he said.

Prakash, who was the seventh member, had to act as arbiter. However, he took advantage of the situation and tried to accomodate as many RSS candidates as possible, the BJP leader said.

The differences between leaders of the two groups were so intense that at one stage Verma staged a walkout in protest when Sahani sought formers view only about candidates belonging to outer Delhi, he pointed out.

Verma is considered a strongman from outer Delhi as his nominee KL Sharma had defeated the Congress candidate, Sajjan Kumar at the last Lok Sabha elections.