Is BJP planning a bigger role for Smriti Irani in Delhi Assembly polls?

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party is understood to be preparing former Union Minister and senior leader Smriti Irani for a bigger political role. The saffron front is learnt to be considering fielding the firebrand leader to take on Aam Aadmi Chief Arvind Kejriwal in the forthcoming Delhi Assembly polls.

After a remarkable comeback in the Haryana Assembly polls, the BJP is in no mood to give a walkover to Kejriwal in the national capital and has already started working on a strategy to effectively counter AAP. 

Sources stated that though Irani may not be projected as the face to take on the AAP strongman, she would certainly be used by the saffron unit widely to counter the former Delhi CM more aggressively.

Sources stated that the senior leader could be given a prominent role in the Delhi assembly polls by nominating her as the party’s campaign committee chief. 

This would effectively mean that she would be the unofficial face to take on Kejriwal, and could play a major role in planning political strategy to take on AAP in the crucial polls, sources said.    

Apart from being articulate and politically adept, Irani is known to be a person with an image of being a street fighter wherein she had even defeated senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his family fiefdom of Amethi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

However, ever since her loss in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP wanted to utilise her services for a larger cause. 

The saffron unit now seems to have finalised Delhi Assembly polls as her next task for making a political comeback, added the source quoted above.  

It is learnt that a senior BJP leadership has already briefed Irani about the bigger role being planned by the party for her. “A senior leader is understood to have reached out to her while she was away on a foreign sojourn recently and she was asked to come back to the country soon to take on a new task being outlined by the organisation,” sources said.

The need to reach out to Irani was felt as the party’s top leadership opines that the Delhi BJP lacks the inspirational leadership to take on AAP in the national capital. 

The saffron unit is desperate to make a comeback to power in the city which was once termed as its citadel. Hence, the need for an aggressive and articulate leader like Irani is being fielded by the party against Kejriwal, sources said.

Moreover, the party feels that Irani being a woman would also be more effective in targeting the new Delhi Chief Minister Atishi Marlena.

The 70-member Delhi Assembly is scheduled to go to polls early next year.  AAP had secured 62 out of these seats in the 2020 Assembly elections. The BJP has been out of power from the Delhi Assembly since December 1998, when the then BJP Chief Minister Sushma Swaraj lost to the Congress, which installed Sheila Dikshit at the helm for three consecutive terms.  

By propping up Irani, the saffron unit wants to desperately make a comeback in the national capital and regain power in the prestigious Assembly which has been out of its grasp for almost 25 years.