STRIFE IN DELHI BJP OUT IN THE OPEN

Bickering in the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has resurfaced at a time when the party in Delhi is gearing up for the general elections and is grappling with key issues such as the ongoing sealing drive. Loyalists of the incumbent party chief, Manoj Tiwari and former Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel are at loggerheads over various issues.

While strife between different factions is not new to Delhi BJP, differences between BJP MPs in Delhi and Tiwari have also come out in the open. This became evident when four of Delhi’s seven MPs were conspicuous by their absence during the recent executive meeting of the party’s state unit. Apart from Tiwari, who is the MP from North East Delhi, only New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi and North West Delhi MP Udit Raj attended the meeting on the first day, while South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri attended the meeting on the second day.

Well-placed sources said that Union Minister Vijay Goel, whose differences with Tiwari are well-known, skipped the first day of the meeting, but attended the concluding session where he criticised the state unit leadership for failing to address the issue of sealing. He reportedly also disapproved of the recent controversy where Tiwari broke the seal of a property. A senior leader told The Sunday Guardian that Goel reprimanded Delhi BJP office bearers for “brainstorming in the comfort of their offices” and said that their disconnect with the masses would hamper BJP’s poll prospects.

Sources close to Tiwari also said that a number of BJP office bearers, including general secretary Kuljeet Chahal, were tasked with organising the Purvanchal Mahakumbh on 23 Septem-