Why is BJP repeatedly choosing lightweight chiefs for its Delhi unit

New Delhi: The central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party is seemingly unwilling to learn from past mistakes and is repeatedly choosing lightweight chiefs for its Delhi unit. This has ensured that the saffron unit’s main opposition, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party and BJP’s seven MPs, several of whom are multiple-term legislators, have a field day.

The newly-appointed working president of Delhi BJP Virendra Sachdeva hasn't ever been elected to any public office and is considered to be purely an organizational man. His predecessor Adesh Gupta and Satish Upadhyay were just councillors. The choice of these leaders seemingly gives out a clear signal that the Central BJP unit is not stepping in for the much-needed overhaul of the party unit, as repeatedly expressed by concerned party leaders.

The trend of choosing lightweight chiefs for the saffron party's Delhi unit has been evident over the past few years, sources pointed out.

Sachdeva’s elevation came even as infighting, factionalism and lack of capable leadership in BJP's Delhi unit were blamed for the loss of the saffron party's stronghold of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. The party feels that it lost hold of the MCD after 15 years of the rule due to ineffective state leadership which was unable to provide proper strategy and planning to retain the party's last bastion of hope in the national capital.

Having a lightweight candidate is expected to pander to the various pulls and pressures within the party. “Having a junior person like Sachdeva now and Adesh Gupta earlier at the helm helped ensure that they listen to MPs and other senior leaders in the national capital. However, this has hurt the saffron unit in the national capital as a lack of strong leadership has left the cadre in disarray,” sources said.

And this is evident in the Lok Sabha polls, while the Delhi BJP has been losing Assembly polls repeatedly, the same cadre works effectively for a strong leader like Prime Minister Narendra Modi during general elections, sources pointed out.

Earlier strong and popular leaders, with a proven administrative track record, were chosen for the BJP's top job in Delhi. For example, Madan Lal Khurana and Dr Harsh Vardhan were fielded to take on the mighty Congress leader Sheila Dikshit. However, no such earnestness is being shown to take the challenge to Aam Aadmi Party strongman Arvind Kejriwal.

Some leaders had also apprised BJP’s top leadership about the less than an effective attack against the Arvind Kejriwal-led party. However, the warnings had seemingly fallen on deaf ears, sources added.

BJP leaders fear unless the saffron party is able to resolve the issue of installing strong leadership it is staring at the erosion of its Delhi vote base in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as well.

BJP’s Punjabi-Bania formula back in Delhi?

After experimenting with just two non-Punjabi and non-Bania BJP Delhi unit chiefs, namely Manoj Tiwari and Satish Upadhyay, the party has seemingly decided to fall back into its historical formula of having a state unit chief from Punjabi or Bania communities.

Sources stated that over the past several decades the saffron unit has only selected a candidate from these two communities as its Delhi unit chief. This has caused a lot of heartburn amongst the population of other communities which support the BJP. Mostly the Poorvanchalis and Uttarakhandis, which have a sizeable population in the national capital, have been crying hoarse at this skewed selection by the saffron unit.

It has also been repeatedly pointed out by various communities that the BJP needs to relook at this Punjabi-Bania dominance in its Delhi unit as these communities have lost their relevance demographically in the current situation.

Population from other regions and communities have overtaken these two and have also lent unfettered support to the saffron unit, sources pointed out. However, the community leaders from these populations have seemingly not been able to convince BJP’s central leadership, hence the falling back on the historical formula.