Sheila Dikshit, Arvind Kejriwal don't bother me: Harsh Vardhan

After a much publicised internal slugfest, the BJP finally named Dr Harsh Vardhan as its Chief Ministerial candidate for the upcoming Delhi polls. A practicing doctor and one of the senior most faces of the party in the national capital, Harsh Vardhan has been pitched three time chief minister Sheila Dikshit and Arvind Kejriwal, the chief ministerial candidate of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), In an interview with Firstpost,  Vardhan talks about the infighting in his party, how he sees Delhi as a resident and whether his party will change its strategy considering that AAP is slowly emerging as a strong contender for Delhi assembly. Edited excerpts: What is the biggest challenge before the Delhi BJP? The objective is to defeat Congress in the assembly poll. I see no difficulties in attaining that challenge because the party has a huge army of dedicated workers and overwhelming support of people. I think with the blessings and advice of our senior leaders we will sail through. We will win both the assembly polls and the Lok Sabha polls with a huge majority. [caption id=“attachment_1201749” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Naresh Sharma/Firstpost[/caption] Your party took lot of time in declaring you as the CM candidate. The list of candidates for election is yet to be released. On the other hand, both, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bahujan Samaj Party have declared candidates on at least 60 out of 70 seats. Do you think this could have an adverse impact on the BJP’s prospects in Delhi? I don’t think we are late. Delhi is a city where if you take a decision and announce it through media, people now get to know about it within hours. My name was declared in the afternoon. By the evening, every child in the city knew that I was the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate. There are also theories questioning how the cadre will work with me when we are almost a month away from elections. The fact is that party workers were not waiting for me or anyone. They were working for the victory of the party and will continue to do so. They have organized everything at the booth level. As far as declaration of candidate on various seats is concerned, even the Congress has not done it. The election is scheduled for December. We are on time. We will release our list of candidates before Diwali. As per various opinion polls, Delhi’s voters have said that Sheila Dikshit or AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal is their most preferred choice for chief minister. Do you think that the BJP has to combat an almost no recall scenario? I disagree with you. BJP is known across India and in Delhi for providing good governance. In 1999, during Sheila Dikshit’s tenure, we won all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. We won the municipal corporation poll in 2007. We won all the three corporations in 2012. In the last three assembly polls, our tally has only been increasing. Therefore, it is unfair to say that people don’t recall the achievements of BJP.  Do you see today’s Delhi as being better or worse than 15 years ago? Dr Harshvardhan: I think most of the basic issues remain unresolved. Mrs Sheila Dikshit repeatedly talks about metro rail and flyovers as achievements of her government,. When the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by the BJP was in power at the Centre and BJP was also heading the Delhi government, the metro rail project used to be part of all our deliberations. The BJP conceptualized it. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee inaugurated the Shahadara- Kashmiri Gate metro line during the NDA regime. Similarly, many of the flyovers which we see today were constructed during the BJP’s Delhi regime. Therefore, the projects for which the chief minister takes credit for were actually BJP’s ideas. Apart from this, just take a look at electricity supply, water, education, public distribution system, inflation. People are suffering like never before. In a recent article, senior journalist M J Akbar commented that Sheila Dikshit’s image is such that it is more difficult to defeat her than her party. Do you agree? I did not indict her on behalf of the Shunglu committee. It was a committee formed by the union government which said that the Chief Minister was involved in irregularities in organizing the Commonwealth Games. I did not indict her in the transport scam either. It was an official in her own ministry. Again, it was Dr S C Vats, Congress MLA, who said that the power privatization was a scam worth Rs 12, 500. Jagdish Anand, another Delhi Congress member said for the first time that there is a huge scam in Delhi Jal Board headed by the CM. He even named members of the CM’s family and lodged a complaint with the Lokayukta. So what perception are you talking about? Mrs Dikshit is not different from the Congress party. Perception is not what is written in the editorials of newspapers. It is what people in the city perceive. I think this is the perception which is probably publicised but it is not true. Are you hinting that Sheila Dikshit has good PR managers? I will not say anything about that. But there is certainly a difference between perception and reality. How do you react to the theory that the AAP will eat into BJP’s votes? Every individual and party is welcome to present their views in a democracy. We have around 1,300 parties in the country. AAP is also added to the list. We are concerned about the BJP’s future policies and strategy. I am preoccupied right now with what I can do to take the BJP to victory in the upcoming election. For me, AAP is a non- issue. I only focus on my job. I am sure Delhiites know quite well that if they want to get rid of the Congress, the only option they have is the BJP. I have full faith in the wisdom of Delhi’s voters. [caption id=“attachment_1201753” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Naresh Sharma/Firstpost[/caption] The day BJP announced your name as its CM candidate for Delhi, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal described you as BJP’s Manmohan Singh. He says while you may be clean, you are associated with a corrupt party. Your comments? I don’t think I have to comment on everything said by everyone. Regarding the credentials of the party, the governments led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the Centre and the state governments under Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders in various states have shown their work. In 1998, Congress party was thrown out of power in Delhi on spiraling prices of onion. Do you think this time high prices of onion will work in your favour? The high price of onion is symbolic of all that is going wrong under the Congress regime in Delhi. The price of onion went up to Rs 30 per kg in 1998 and at that rate, it was unaffordable at that point of time. Now, people have been forced to pay Rs 100 per kg of onions for almost a month now. The government is not making any serious efforts to bring down the prices. Also, this time, it is not only about onion. Prices of all important food commodities are going North. I believe corruption and inflation in totality have left the people fed up with the Congress rule in Delhi. Congress remains your main opponent. But the Shromani Akali Dal has declared that this time they will not ally with you in Delhi. It will field its own candidates on 17 seats with predominantly Sikh population. Do you think this will add to the woes of BJP? I don’t know who has given you all this information. Our alliance with Akali Dal is age old. Deliberations are not complete and have not been made complete. The issue will be sorted out and we will make the result public accordingly.  In case the BJP falls short of a few seats to form the government, will it ally with AAP? There is no need to comment on a hypothetical situation which will never arise.