BJP Parliamentary Board to meet today, could pick Delhi CM candidate

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Parliamentary Board will meet on Wednesday morning to take a formal decision on the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the Delhi Assembly poll. The meeting was scheduled for 11 am. The long delay in picking the candidate and making the announcement is seen as having hurt the BJP’s campaign in a personality-driven contest now featuring incumbent chief minister Sheila Dikshit and the Aam Aadmi Party challenger Arvind Kejriwal. Party sources believe that four-time MLA, former Union health minister and practising ENT surgeon Dr Harsh Vardhan will be declared the party’s candidate later today. [caption id=“attachment_1188643” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The BJP Parliamentary Board will be meeting today. PTI[/caption] The meeting of the Parliamentary Board will put an official seal on the decision already believed to have been taken. Sources said the party leadership had been waiting for Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley to return from his two-week tour of the United States before the Parliamentary Board meeting is convened. Jaitley’s preference for Harsh Vardhan is also well known. December’s Assembly election in the capital is seen as a semi-final of sorts before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Despite some exceptions, by and large, there is a belief that the result of the Delhi poll usually reflects the mood of the nation. As the capital city, there is also tremendous symbolism attached with the Delhi Assembly poll outcome. The party leadership had until a couple of weeks ago maintained that the party may not announce a CM candidate immediately, with Delhi in-charge Nitin Gadkari even indicating that the decision could be left until after the polls, a course correction was in order. While Narendra Modi has been of the opinion that a formal decision on the chief ministerial candidate should be done immediately, there were pros and cons to weigh – the biggest being the outcome of upsetting serving Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel who had projected himself as the frontrunner. Modi’s intervention appears to have sealed Goel’s fate. Speaking to Firstpost earlier, Dr Harsh Vardhan admitted it was important for the party to clearly project a CM-candidate. “I strongly feel that in today’s time apart from knowing the party’s ideology, the people like to also have a clear idea of the that party’s face for the top post to assess whether or not he has the potential to be the leader to work for their welfare.” Asked if the party may have lost valuable time in the negotiations and the efforts to assuage the fears of Goel, Harsh Vardhan said “It is for the party to assess. My personal view is that we are running against time.”