BJP: Something is amiss

As the national Capital heads for the second round of state assembly elections in fewer than 18 months, all is not well in the Delhi unit of the BJP with the cadres demoralised over the fact that the newcomers in the party are being given prominence over the old-timers who were also responsible for the sterling show that was put up during the general elections.

Girja Shankar Kaura

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 6

As the national Capital heads for the second round of state assembly elections in fewer than 18 months, all is not well in the Delhi unit of the BJP with the cadres demoralised over the fact that the newcomers in the party are being given prominence over the old-timers who were also responsible for the sterling show that was put up during the general elections.
Reports emerging from the headquarters of the Delhi BJP clearly indicate that the recent actions of state unit head Satish Upadhyaya have not gone down with the party cadres and the mood fast is returning to one just before the last assembly elections when certain actions by the party high command had left the party divided in the national Capital.
Even though the overall performance of the BJP is expected to improve than the last time, but that would be despite what is happening with the state unit and due to the lack of faith which people now have in the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP due to the antics it did after coming to power for the short time in Delhi.
Reports suggest that the party's seven Lok Sabha MPs from the capital are not seeing eye-to-eye with Upadhyaya, primarily because they feel he had been anointed on the Delhi BJP, while some of the seniors who are also competent were ignored.
Reports say that the promotion of Ashwini Upadhyaya, who joined the party recently from the AAP, as the spokesperson of the Delhi unit while other senior leaders, including general secretary Ashish Sood, being pushed back has also not gone down well with the cadres. Upadhyaya has also been made the defacto in charge of party's social media which is in tatters now.
While party's high command is keeping a close watch on the happenings in Delhi, it has emerged that the party national president Amit Shah is also said to be unhappy with the state of affairs, even though it was he who had appointed Satish Upadhyaya as the party head in the state.
Party's communication strategy is also not in place and that was evident in the uttering of Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, leading to chaos in the both Houses of Parliament.
While the AAP is leaving no stone unturned in its campaign through the social media, the BJP's performance on social media in Delhi is extremely poor.
The Delhi unit is also not being to provide talking points to the MPs for the huge set of over 2,700 meetings that have been planned for them.
There is a complete lack of coordination for these meetings to be addressed by 300 BJP MPs, which has also been evident in poor attendance at the meetings resulting in some of them even being cancelled.
It is possible that the charisma of Narendra Modi may pull the BJP through in Delhi, but it would be despite all the shortcomings in the state unit.