BJP sidelines Vijay Goel, opts for Harshvardhan as Delhi CM aspirant

After a long and troubled deliberation over who to field as BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in Delhi, the party has finally settled on Harshvardhan giving unit chief Vijay Goel a miss. The party, torn apart by severe infighting, took the step to address several issues of hierarchy and importance that rocked BJP in Delhi after Goel was made its unit chief. According to India Today, the party has realised that prior to the Lok Sabha elections, they can’t field a candidate, who has failed to click with the party cadre in Delhi. India Today reports:

“Highly placed BJP sources told TV Today that the decision to project Harshvardhan has been taken since the party wants to go into the elections with a leader who has a clean image as its CM candidate.”

[caption id=“attachment_1173545” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Dr Harshvardhan. AFP.[/caption] The party’s decision, however, comes as a huge snub to Goel who threw a flagrant challenge at CM Sheila Dikshit to debate issues of governance with him just two days back on 13 October. According to a report on PTI, he also drew up a list of 15 questions which he announced that he would want Dikshit to answer. However, his attempt to lord over the party and change its fortunes by himself in Delhi didn’t go down well with several BJP leaders in the city. Dissent against him had been pooling across several ranks of the party for a while now. Recently, to pacify party cadres the BJP high command in Delhi ordered that the poll campaign will feature ‘Team BJP’ posters instead of promoting Goel’s face as is the tradition in Indian politics. Hindustan Times reports:

The ‘Jeetenge Dilli, Jeetenge Bharat, Team BJP’ poster was in line with the ‘collective leadership’ dictum introduced by the Delhi Assembly polls incharge Nitin Gadkari.

 An article on Tehelka notes that BJP needs a Modi-like medicine to revive its poll fortunes in Delhi. And Vijay Goel is hardly the man who fits that description. Tehelka reports:

To put the  BJP back on track again, it can be argued, will require perhaps the charisma and aggression of  Narendra Modi. In contrast,  Vijay Goel’s persona is anything but aggressive. His primary skill, his party maintains, is political acumen.

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While Harshvardhan can’t possibly be Delhi’s Modi counterpart, he is perceived as a clean, humble politician much on the lines of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. He also served as the Union minister for health, education, and law during NDA’s term in the government compared to Goel who was a minister of state for youth affairs and sports. Harshvardhan, unlike Goel, also doesn’t come with the baggage of dynastic politics - he is a first generation politician. On the other hand Goel is the son of former Delhi Vidhan Sabha speaker Chart Lal Goel. It is therefore evident that to battle Sheila Dikshit and compete with Kejriwal’s squeaky clean politics of anti-corruption, Harshvardhan was BJP’s best bet and the party decided to leave no loose ends in the Delhi elections.