NEW DELHI, Dec 11: Adesh Gupta on Sunday resigned as the president of Delhi BJP accepting the responsibility for his party’s defeat in the high-stake elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) against the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party.
The Delhi unit vice-president Virendra Sachdeva has been made the working president of the party till the appointment of Mr Gupta’s successor, the BJP said. Adesh Gupta had been appointed the chief of the BJP’s Delhi unit in June 2020.
On Friday, ending speculation over the party staking a claim on the mayor’s post despite losing the civic polls, Adesh Gupta had said the MCD mayor will be from the AAP and the BJP will play the role of a “strong opposition.” Several BJP leaders had earlier hinted that the party take a shot for the mayor’s post despite losing the civic polls.
“Now over to electing a mayor for Delhi. It will all depend on who can hold the numbers in a close contest, which way the nominated councillors vote etc. Chandigarh has a BJP mayor, for instance,” the BJP’s IT department chief Amit Malviya had tweeted on Wednesday when the results were being declared.
Hints dropped by other party leaders, including Manjinder Singh Sirsa and Tajinder Pal Bagga, also gave rise to speculation that the BJP might go for the mayor’s post. It was further buttressed by the example of Chandigarh, where the AAP had earlier this year emerged as the single-largest party by winning 14 of the 35 wards in the municipal polls, but the BJP secured the mayor’s post.
The AAP on Wednesday defeated the BJP in the closely watched civic polls. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party scored 134 of the 250 wards, while the BJP won 104. The BJP had overseen the MCD for 15 years.
Meanwhile, in Gujarat betraying Kejriwal’s confidence in his partymen, an AAP newly-elected MLA showed willingness to join hands with the BJP to “get works done for his people. A former BJP man Bhupat Bhayani, who this time was elected from Visavadar in Junagadh district on AAP ticket, said he would take the “opinion of the people” of he should join the BJP. The remark flies in the face of Kejriwal’s assertion that “none of my diamonds are for sale,” indicating that the leaders he is fielding would not change camp.
“I have not joined the BJP… I will ask the people if I should join the BJP or not,” Mr Bhayani said. The reason, he said, was that the Opposition’s low score has made it weak and as an MLA, and sitting on the opposition benches will not enable him to do anything for the people who voted for him.
“My seat is in an area dominated by farmers. I need to solve their irrigation-related problems. There are many traders in the area as well. I need to look after them too. I’ll not be able to do that if I do not have good connections with the government. I have placed my demands before the government have got a positive response. I’ll now consult the people, the leaders,” he added.
Mr Bhayani, who was earlier with the BJP, had turned rebel and joined AAP. He attributed his victory to his work done as a BJP MLA. “The people know me,” he added. About the possibility of the anti-defection law coming into play, Mr Bhayani brushed it off. “India is a democratic country and it is my right to work for the people,” he said.
Three other independent MLAs elected from Bayad, Dhanera and Vaghodia are also likely to support the BJP, though the party with massive 156 seats in the House of 18 need no outside support to survive.
(Manas Dasgupta)