NEW DELHI: BJP has decided to pull out of the race for the MCD mayor and would prefer sitting in the opposition, sources in the party have said.
Senior functionaries said most members agreed on not staking claim to the mayoral position as they felt that AAP had made many tall claims, which, according to them, were practically not possible to achieve and would give BJP ammunition for future elections.
A BJP office-bearer said that, till now, neither the MPs nor the councillors had been told to contact any functionary from AAP and bring them into the party fold.
All 250 elected councillors will be eligible to vote in the mayoral election and there is no anti-defection law in place for the corporation. According to rules, the first mayor after an MCD election must be a woman. In the third year, the mayor must be from a reserved category. “One of the main reasons that anti-incumbency was built against BJP was that the Delhi government had stopped funds, which led to salary delays and developmental projects not getting executed. If the mayor is from BJP, it would again lead to the same situation,” another office-bearer said.
“Also, promises like clearing the landfills are practically not possible to achieve in the next five years, so it would give us more ammunition to attack AAP, especially in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls,” he said.
Earlier, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh had alleged that BJP had started threatening his party’s councillors and was also trying to lure them into switching sides. “These are elected councillors of AAP. It is impossible to buy them. I demand from the police commissioner of Delhi to have those people arrested who are involved in any trading of councillors here through money and threats,” he had alleged.
Similar allegations were made by BJP, with party national spokesperson Shahzad Poonawalla and Delhi unit spokesperson Harish Khurana alleging that a purported AAP leader, Shikha Garg, approached Anand Vihar councillor Monika Pant and asked her to jump ship and promised extra funds for her area.
Senior functionaries said most members agreed on not staking claim to the mayoral position as they felt that AAP had made many tall claims, which, according to them, were practically not possible to achieve and would give BJP ammunition for future elections.
A BJP office-bearer said that, till now, neither the MPs nor the councillors had been told to contact any functionary from AAP and bring them into the party fold.
All 250 elected councillors will be eligible to vote in the mayoral election and there is no anti-defection law in place for the corporation. According to rules, the first mayor after an MCD election must be a woman. In the third year, the mayor must be from a reserved category. “One of the main reasons that anti-incumbency was built against BJP was that the Delhi government had stopped funds, which led to salary delays and developmental projects not getting executed. If the mayor is from BJP, it would again lead to the same situation,” another office-bearer said.
“Also, promises like clearing the landfills are practically not possible to achieve in the next five years, so it would give us more ammunition to attack AAP, especially in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls,” he said.
Earlier, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh had alleged that BJP had started threatening his party’s councillors and was also trying to lure them into switching sides. “These are elected councillors of AAP. It is impossible to buy them. I demand from the police commissioner of Delhi to have those people arrested who are involved in any trading of councillors here through money and threats,” he had alleged.
Similar allegations were made by BJP, with party national spokesperson Shahzad Poonawalla and Delhi unit spokesperson Harish Khurana alleging that a purported AAP leader, Shikha Garg, approached Anand Vihar councillor Monika Pant and asked her to jump ship and promised extra funds for her area.
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