BJP wants Jaitley to face Shiela; he flies to US

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Harish Gupta

 Worried over all opinion polls unequivocally predicting defeat for the BJP in Delhi Assembly polls, the party high command has launched a search for its chief ministerial candidate who can face the twin challenges of Shiela Dixit and Aam Admi Party.

Highly placed sources in the BJP told Lokmat Times that the desperate leadership is pinning its hope on the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley to bail it out. The BJP leadership can ill-afford to take a hit and fourth consecutive win for Shiela Dixit in the capital city of India. The continuous defeat of the BJP despite Narendra Modi being projected as its prime ministerial candidate can cause irreparable damage. It is learnt that the matter was discussed with Arun Jaitley by the party's core group last week. Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Ram Lal, general secretary of the party, and a top RSS functionary tried hard to persuade Jaitley to make this sacrifice. 

When Jaitley pointed out that he would be going to the UN General Assembly to address it, the party decided to defer the selection of candidates. It will begin only after Jaitley's return. All pre-poll surveys conducted by CNN-IBN, Headlines Today, ABP News, Times Now, C-Voter and others have predicted that the BJP will not get more than 30 seats under any circumstance in the house of 70. Nitin Gadkari, chairman of the Delhi Assembly polls campaign committee, also got a pre-poll survey done through a reputed marketing agency. The survey said that unless BJP can find a clean, credible, honest person with modern outlook with wider acceptability, it would not succeed. None of the present leadership in Delhi including Vijay Goel, Vijender Gupta, Harsh Wardhan, Aarti Mehra, Vijay Kumar Malhotra are capable of defeating a veteran like Mrs Dixit. 

Jaitley has not said yes and the party leadership is keeping its fingers crossed until his return. Jaitley will be addressing the UNGA tonight and thereafter will be on holiday with family for two weeks.