Irked councillors meet state BJP chief over tickets

NEW DELHI: BJP councillors are not going to let go the chance to contest Assembly elections that easily. Recently, around 12 councillors including leader of House Subhash Arya and mayor Arti Mehra met BJP chief of state Dr Harshvardhan on this issue. Though they claim nothing concrete came of it, some of them have even been making individual efforts to get a ticket.In fact, mayor Arti Mehra said that the party decision to bar councillors from contesting elections was not logical.
BJP leaders had recently declared that no BJP candidate who stood for MCD elections would be given tickets for the present Assembly elections. The Congress has, however, kept its doors open for eligible sitting councillors to seek a ticket.
According to BJP councillors, however, there are many constituencies where they stand a better chance of winning compared to the MLA of the area. According to them, they have established themselves since the MCD elections in 2007 and are known faces in areas where the party is still searching for likely candidates.
Said Mehra: "The decision of the part is not logical.'' According to the councillors, the party has adopted an unfair elimination process as no party's constitution bars councillors from contesting elections. Said Harshvardhan: "We had stated in clearly in 2007 that any candidate contesting elections in 2007 would not be given a ticket in 2008. It was an option that was provided to everyone. In the core group meeting, we basically asked the councillors to plan election strategy in their wards.''
Said a BJP councillor: "Many councillors won MCD elections by large margins like 8,000-10,000 votes, while the MLAs of the areas managed to win by only small margins. The party should have carried out a survey to see who between the councillor and MLA of the area has a better chance to win and should have given the deserving candidate the ticket to contest Assembly elections.''
He added: "Factors such as track record, loyalty etc should also be considered. The party is considering MLAs who have lost twice over whereas councillors of the ward have won the MCD elections three times consecutively.'' Councillors such as Subhash Arya, Vijender Gupta, Arti Mehra, Divya Kumar Jaiswal, Ram Kishan Singh etc are among those who have won three MCD elections.
Said BJP councillor Mahender Nagpal, who had plans of contesting for Assembly elections: "The core group met Dr Harshvardhan recently and many councillors have been making individual visits also. We will comply with whatever the party decides.'' According to councillors, since they contested elections after delimitation, in many of the new wards only councillors have a chance of winning and BJP's move has just limited their choices, especially with regard to the weaker seats in many of the unauthorized and resettlement colonies.
Added a councillor: "If they give a ticket to one councillor, they will have to provide other deserving councillors with tickets also.''