In one week, it’s gone from being a party confident of a cakewalk in the February 7 Delhi assembly elections to one that is completely faction-ridden. On Sunday, the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party stood in confusion as almost all its senior were suddenly unsure of their political futures.
The factor responsible for this dramatic transformation was the induction of former Indian Police Service officer Kiran Bedi into the BJP on Thursday and the party leadership’s immediate decision to make her the face of the elections. This despite her sharp criticism of the BJP when she was associated with the Anna Hazare anti-corruption movement only a few years ago.
State unit leaders who had worked all their careers to build to organisation and to gain a shot at the top job suddenly feel a sense of betrayal so intense, the party may now have problem motivating them to campaign for Bedi.
“The sense of abandonment in most Delhi leaders is so profound that it would require divine intervention to make them work actively under Kiran Bedi’s leadership to ensure party’s victory,” said a senior BJP leader.
Leaders are aghast
Another BJP leader, who until recently considered himself a probable chief ministerial candidate and is aghast at the manner Bedi has been “paratrooped” to lead the party, seems to have taken the blow philosophically. “The party has its own destiny which is independent of the destinies of individual leaders,” he said. “If it is destined, the party will certainly win irrespective of the fact whether some of the leaders work on the ground or not.”
He added, “In politics, you may get jettisoned. But it hurts when it happens in this way, and it hurts more if you have risen high.”
Like any other party, the BJP has a set of probables who compete among themselves whenever a race for a significant position begins. On occasion, new candidates do enter the race, but rarely from the outside for such a senior job. For the BJP, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh acts as the perennial source of readymade leaders.
“But never in the past – and certainly not in the midst of an election – had an outsider been put at the helm of affairs as soon as she joined the party,” said a BJP leader. “What happens if the party fails to get majority in Delhi? Who will take the responsibility? Won’t she simply walk away if she doesn’t get what she wants from the party? Why would she slog for the party like an insider?”
On January 15, after flirting with the BJP for several months, Bedi was finally inducted into the party by president Amit Shah and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Before this, she met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and declared shortly after that she was inspired by him. Soon the speculation began that she would be declared the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate for Delhi.
No formal decision
Technically, the BJP has not taken any formal decision this. On paper, she is merely one of its members. But immediately after she joined the party, a huge hoarding depicting Bedi along with Modi and Amit Shah came up at the BJP headquarters, and her statements and bearing assumed the flourishes of one occupying high office.
The parliamentary board, the highest decision-making body of the BJP, is likely to take a call on the responsibility to be handed over to Bedi when it meets on Monday. “The board may also take a decision on the seat she will contest from as finalising the list of candidates for all 70 constituencies in Delhi is the main agenda for Monday’s meeting,” a BJP leader said.
The Delhi unit of the BJP has several leaders who harbour chief ministerial ambition. These include Harsh Vardhan, Vijay Goel, Jagdish Mukhi and Satish Upadhyay. But with Bedi around, the possibility of any leader from the old pack obtaining the chief minister’s position is near impossible, party insiders say.
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The factor responsible for this dramatic transformation was the induction of former Indian Police Service officer Kiran Bedi into the BJP on Thursday and the party leadership’s immediate decision to make her the face of the elections. This despite her sharp criticism of the BJP when she was associated with the Anna Hazare anti-corruption movement only a few years ago.
State unit leaders who had worked all their careers to build to organisation and to gain a shot at the top job suddenly feel a sense of betrayal so intense, the party may now have problem motivating them to campaign for Bedi.
“The sense of abandonment in most Delhi leaders is so profound that it would require divine intervention to make them work actively under Kiran Bedi’s leadership to ensure party’s victory,” said a senior BJP leader.
Leaders are aghast
Another BJP leader, who until recently considered himself a probable chief ministerial candidate and is aghast at the manner Bedi has been “paratrooped” to lead the party, seems to have taken the blow philosophically. “The party has its own destiny which is independent of the destinies of individual leaders,” he said. “If it is destined, the party will certainly win irrespective of the fact whether some of the leaders work on the ground or not.”
He added, “In politics, you may get jettisoned. But it hurts when it happens in this way, and it hurts more if you have risen high.”
Like any other party, the BJP has a set of probables who compete among themselves whenever a race for a significant position begins. On occasion, new candidates do enter the race, but rarely from the outside for such a senior job. For the BJP, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh acts as the perennial source of readymade leaders.
“But never in the past – and certainly not in the midst of an election – had an outsider been put at the helm of affairs as soon as she joined the party,” said a BJP leader. “What happens if the party fails to get majority in Delhi? Who will take the responsibility? Won’t she simply walk away if she doesn’t get what she wants from the party? Why would she slog for the party like an insider?”
On January 15, after flirting with the BJP for several months, Bedi was finally inducted into the party by president Amit Shah and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Before this, she met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and declared shortly after that she was inspired by him. Soon the speculation began that she would be declared the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate for Delhi.
No formal decision
Technically, the BJP has not taken any formal decision this. On paper, she is merely one of its members. But immediately after she joined the party, a huge hoarding depicting Bedi along with Modi and Amit Shah came up at the BJP headquarters, and her statements and bearing assumed the flourishes of one occupying high office.
The parliamentary board, the highest decision-making body of the BJP, is likely to take a call on the responsibility to be handed over to Bedi when it meets on Monday. “The board may also take a decision on the seat she will contest from as finalising the list of candidates for all 70 constituencies in Delhi is the main agenda for Monday’s meeting,” a BJP leader said.
The Delhi unit of the BJP has several leaders who harbour chief ministerial ambition. These include Harsh Vardhan, Vijay Goel, Jagdish Mukhi and Satish Upadhyay. But with Bedi around, the possibility of any leader from the old pack obtaining the chief minister’s position is near impossible, party insiders say.