Delhi elections 2015: Amit Shah to put weight behind Kiran Bedi; to address party workers with her in different parts of city

Shah, who is known not to brook indiscipline, has decided to put his weight behind Bedi and address meetings of party workers along with her in different parts of the city.

By BHAVNA VIJ AURORA, ET Bureau | Updated: Jan 23, 2015, 08.43 AM IST

Delhi elections 2015: Amit Shah to put weight behind Kiran Bedi; to address party workers with her in different parts of city

NEW DELHI: Amit Shah has been forced to change tack after his efforts failed to quell the rebellion in the party’s local unit following the declaration of "outsider" Kiran Bedi as its chief ministerial candidate, an uncharacteristic move on part of the BJP president that underlines the peculiar challenges that the party faces in Delhi.

Shah, who is known not to brook indiscipline, has decided to put his weight behind Bedi and address meetings of party workers along with her in different parts of the poll-bound city.

The decision comes after Shah put the party’s Delhi president Satish Upadhyay on watch after his supporters put up an unruly show of dissent, hinted at a complete makeover of Delhi unit after the elections and personally pulled up MP Manoj Tiwari for publicly saying that Delhi needed a leader, not a thanedaar (cop).

On Thursday, with Bedi on his side, Shah addressed three public meetings of party workers including booth in-charges and district heads in Chandni Chowk, east Delhi and Sonia Vihar in north-east Dehi.

So, why has Shah not been able to maintain order in the party’s Delhi unit?

One explanation is that this unit, which has seen four presidents in five years, has been in total disarray and a cause of concern for the central leadership for quite some time as the party has been out of power in Delhi for the past 15 years.

Even when the assembly elections were held in 2013, the Delhi BJP was a divided house, with intense infighting among the local leaders including Vijay Goel, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Vijay Jolly, Harsh Vardhan and Jagdish Mukhi.

The manner of former IPS officer Bedi’s induction only worsened matters as it took the local leaders by surprise, people familiar with the matter said.

After the party’s central leaders decided that the Delhi unit did not have a single charismatic leader to take on Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal, senior leader Arun Jaitley suggested it was time to launch Bedi, who had parted ways with Kejriwal after the latter’s decision to form a political party.

"It was a well-considered and debated decision. The party had gone into polls in other states without a CM candidate. But then it was decided that Delhi was a complex pie with AAP being a major factor," said a BJP leader privy to the deliberations. "While a section of leadership did not want to acknowledge Kejriwal as a challenger, Shah and company felt that it would be foolhardy to go into the battle unprepared. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the final go-ahead, Bedi was brought on board," said the leader, requesting anonymity.

Bedi appears confident that Shah will succeed in establishing order in the party. In an interview with ET on Wednesday, when asked about the infighting in the party over her candidature, Bedi said that Shah had already responded and was handling the issue.

Shah had taken charge of Delhi polls in mid-December and brought in RSS cadres to help micromanage the campaigning, especially to counter the effective door-to-door canvassing by AAP. He is now exhorting workers to forget their internal differences and rise above personal ambitions to work for the larger good to ensure the party’s victory in Delhi.

However, the factionalism in the party has surfaced for all to see close to the polls. Upadhyay, a leader from the RSS stable, who took over the party reins in July 2014, saw himself as a serious contender for chief ministership, as did Harsh Vardhan, who had been projected as the CM candidate at the last minute in the previous polls and has since been inducted in the union cabinet.

"The Shah mantra is to win Delhi and make it unassailable for the next 25 years. He wants the victory march to continue under Modi’s leadership after the party’s win in Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Haryana and an impressive showing in Jammu and Kashmir," a BJP leader said.

According to those in the know, Shah first took the decision that no leader would be "brought down" from either Lok Sabha (Meenakshi Lekhi, Smriti Irani and Harsh Vardhan) or Rajya Sabha (Vijay Goel) to take over Delhi, ruling out all these names that had been on the tentative list for some time along with that of Bedi.

"It was then that Upadhyay’s supporters became hopeful that he had a real chance. With Bedi’s advent, they are the most disappointed and also most vocal in their opposition," said a leader.

BJP vice president and in-charge of party affairs in Delhi Prabhat Jha told ET that the party was not scared of AAP, "only cautious", adding that people were coming into the BJP from outside since the party was going to win, while he dismissed reports of factionalism in the party. Significantly, Jha said that despite Bedi being the CM candidate, Modi will remain the face for the Delhi elections.

The party’s campaign committee on Thursday finalises the campaign schedule for Modi and Bedi in all 70 seats, as per which the prime minister will address about five election rallies in Delhi between January 28 and February 5. The party is also set to release new posters featuring Bedi along with Modi.

Download
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.