NEW DELHI: Out of power in Delhi for more than 25 years, BJP has focused its campaign on allegations of corruption against AAP functionaries and renovation of the chief minister’s residence, which they refer to as “Sheesh Mahal”. The party is yet to spell out its own agenda for governance if it manages to oust AAP.
With the AAP govt’s promise of a Rs 2,100 direct transfer to women being one of the talking points ahead of the polls, some Delhi functionaries are waiting for the party’s nod for their strategy to somewhat blunt the threat from AAP’s Mahila Samman Scheme with their own offer of direct transfer benefits to women which it could include in its manifesto.
A senior party functionary said BJP is in a good position to convince people with the examples of party-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
AAP’s claim that BJP will put an end to freebies related to 200 units of electricity, bus travel and water if it came to power was countered by PM Narendra Modi himself at the ‘Parivartan Rally’ in Rohini on Sunday. He gave the assurance that BJP won’t end any of the welfare schemes being run by the AAP govt.
He also targeted former CM Arvind Kejriwal over the renovation of his residence at Flag Staff Road, giving a clear indication that the issue is critical for BJP’s campaign.
The party, with its extensive karyakarta network and with the benefit of a decade long anti-incumbency against AAP, aims to maintain its Lok Sabha voting percentage of over fifty percent in the forthcoming election. With a vote share of 54.33 per cent, BJP made a clean sweep of all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi for the third time in a row last year. Its vote share in 2019 was 56.7 per cent.
The party has conducted a year-long outreach programme in jhuggis, an AAP stronghold during the previous two Vidhan Sabha elections, to achieve this target. This approach was again evident during the PM’s speech where he urged party members at the venue to record photographs and videos of Swabhiman Apartments. He instructed party workers to reach out to those who don’t have pucca houses and inform them about similar housing opportunities. The PM’s remarks were in reference to the 1,675 newly built flats at Swabhiman Apartments in Ashok Vihar, which were inaugurated on Friday and some handed over to slum-dwellers.
The party is also counting on what it perceives as discontent against AAP. “There is anti-incumbency against both state govt and MCD with the latter failing to keep the city clean or build roads. There is waterlogging everywhere during rain,” pointed out a BJP functionary.
What BJP, however, lacks is a chief ministerial candidate and AAP has targeted the party on the issue. However, BJP considers this approach advantageous, having successfully implemented it in several states, including Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.
While some BJP members believe having a leader matching Kejriwal’s popularity could have been beneficial, the absence of a CM face prevents factionalism, which is prevalent in BJP’s local unit. The party attributes its poor performance in the 2020 elections partly to naming Kiran Bedi as the CM candidate.
Party insiders said that at the core of BJP’s strategy is whipping up a wave in the last month. “This involves several central leaders campaigning in Delhi, wide publicity and taking the corruption allegations against AAP leaders to the residents of Delhi. These efforts will help change people’s minds,” they said.
