After Lok Sabha rout, is BJP’s Smriti Irani going to contest Delhi Assembly polls?

The Delhi Assembly elections will witness a high-stakes battle among the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. The three parties are putting their all in for an election that is likely to shape national politics.

The BJP, which has been out of power in Delhi since 1998, is aggressively taking on the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP to prevent it from securing another term in the National Capital. From fielding strong contenders against the AAP bigwigs to trying to corner it over alleged corruption, the BJP is pulling out all the stops to best Kejriwal’s party.

After pitting former West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma against Kejriwal in the New Delhi seat and ex-MP Ramesh Bidhuri against Delhi Chief Minister Atishi in Kalkaji, reports have come to light that the BJP is considering giving a ticket to former Union minister Smriti Irani against AAP minister Saurabh Bharadwaj.

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Let’s take a closer look.

Delhi polls: Smriti Irani vs Saurabh Bharadwaj?

Smriti Irani’s name has reportedly come up within the BJP to field as a candidate from the Greater Kailash Assembly seat in the February 5 Delhi Assembly elections.

Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj is fighting from the GK constituency. He is a three-time AAP MLA from Greater Kailash and one of the seniormost members of the party.

As per an Indian Express report, noting Bharadwaj’s popularity in the GK seat, the BJP is seeking a “strong” contender to challenge him.

Irani is among the three women leaders who are being considered against the AAP MLA. The other names making the rounds are former Union minister Meenakshi Lekhi, ex-mayor Arti Mehra and Shikha Rai, a sitting councillor from the GK ward.

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“The GK seat has emerged as a very important constituency during our poll discussions. The BJP’s Delhi election in-charge, Baijayant Panda, was himself deputed by the Central Election Committee last Friday to seek the assent of the candidates being considered, including a former Delhi MP,” a BJP source told the newspaper.

According to the report, the Delhi Core Committee held an hourslong meeting with the senior leadership on Monday (January 13) to finalise the remaining names for the polls, where it was suggested by the Delhi BJP unit to field a strong candidate like Irani.

However, sources close to Irani have trashed the reports, telling Indian Express she was not in the “race”. The other women leaders have, however, expressed interest in contesting from the GK seat.

The BJP has announced 59 candidates for the 70-member Delhi Assembly elections so far.

Meanwhile, some BJP politicians have also warned against “parachuting” leaders from outside after projecting former IPS officer Kiran Bedi as the saffron party’s CM face in Delhi in 2015 and losing the polls.

Rise and rise of Smriti Irani

As the spotlight has again turned to Smriti Irani , we will take a look at her meteoric rise and downfall in the BJP.

A popular Television star, Irani joined the BJP in 2003 and made her electoral debut a year later.

Born and raised in Delhi, she contested the 2004 Lok Sabha elections from Chandni Chowk in Delhi, against the Congress’ Kapil Sibal. The then-Congress leader trounced Irani by a margin of more than 80,000 votes.

The BJP had hoped to cash in on Irani’s popularity as the lead in one of the most-watched soap operas in India. Despite her defeat, Irani continued to rise within the BJP.

“The election campaign helped showcase her oratory, and the real value of her celebrity status,” Delhi-based businessman Sudhanshu Mittal told The Caravan in 2016.

In 2004, Irani upset the BJP leadership by declaring that she would undertake “fast unto death” if Narendra Modi did not step down as Gujarat chief minister. Her public retraction of the statement and a meeting with Modi helped her save her political career.

She rose through the party ranks, even becoming the president of the BJP Mahila Morcha in 2010. A year later, she was elected as a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat.

In 2014, Irani contested the general elections from Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi Lok Sabha seat against Congress’ Rahul Gandhi. While she lost the polls, the BJP leader reduced Gandhi’s victory margin from 3.70 lakh votes in 2009 to 1.07 lakh votes, as per an India Today report.

Irani was rewarded and appointed to head the high-profile human resource development (HRD) ministry, now known as the Ministry of Education.

However, in a Cabinet reshuffle in 2016, she was removed from the HRD ministry and shifted to the textiles ministry in the first Modi government. Her public spats with opposition leaders and differences with senior BJP leaders and Cabinet colleagues were seen to be her undoing, reported Economic Times (ET).

The development had come a year after she was dropped from the BJP’s national executive.

Irani emerged as a giant killer in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, defeating Rahul Gandhi in the Amethi Lok Sabha seat. With this, Gandhi became the first Congress president from the Nehru-Gandhi family to lose a Lok Sabha election.

Irani’s feat was recognised by the party and she was retained in the Modi 2.0. Along with textiles, Irani was given the key portfolio of women and child development.

Amethi lost, but Delhi next?

Irani remained in the public glare after she defeated Congress heavyweight Rahul Gandhi from his family pocket borough of Amethi in 2019.

Confident of her victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Amethi, Irani had scoffed at reports of Rahul Gandhi or his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, fighting against her, saying “whoever comes will be defeated surely”.

However, the Congress fielded KL Sharma, a Gandhi family loyalist, from Amethi. In a major setback, the BJP failed to secure a majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Irani was among the bigwig BJP leaders who lost the polls.

Accepting her defeat, Irani had said in a tweet at the time, “Such is life… A decade of my life going from one village to another, building lives, nurturing hope & aspirations, working on infrastructure - roads, naali, khadanja, bypass, medical college and more. To those who stood by me through loss and victory, I am forever grateful. To those celebrating today, congratulations. And to those asking, ‘How’s the josh?’ I say- it’s still high, Sir.”

She did not make it as a minister in the third Modi government . However, Irani continues to be in the public eye and takes on the opposition.

After her Lok Sabha beating, the former Union minister has increasingly been involved in the BJP’s activities in Delhi, raising speculations about her “role” in the party’s city unit.

BJP insiders believe Irani could counter ex-Delhi CM Kejriwal, bridging the gap in the saffron party’s ranks of a “charismatic leader”, reported Indian Express.

The BJP is yet to reveal its cards when it comes to its plans, if any, for Irani in the Delhi elections.

With inputs from agencies