Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel has relied more on personal loyalty and less on electoral experience while drawing up his team for the Delhi Assembly elections, scheduled to be held in November, 2013.
In an effort to maintain caste, community and regional balance, Goel has also inducted two councillors in his team, but according to party insiders the team lacks ‘mass leaders’.
‘Among the three general secretaries, only Ramesh Bidhuri enjoys an individual vote base. The other general secretary, Shikha Rai, has never contested an election and the third one, Jai Prakash, lost the only election he has contested from the Sadar Bazar constituency in the 2008 Delhi Assembly elections,’ said a senior party leader.
‘As general secretaries are considered next only to the president in the party hierarchy, those chosen for the posts should have been stronger mass leaders,’ he added.
Shikha Rai is considered to be very close to the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, and Jai Prakash is considered to be close to Goel.
In the new team, Goel has dropped eight former vice-presidents but has retained two, former mayor Prithvi Raj Sahni and senior party leader Pawan Sharma.
The three councillors who have secured places in the new team as vice-presidents are former mayor of North DMC Meera Aggarwal, former standing committee chairman of North DMC Yogendra Chandolia, and chairman of remunerative project cell Ashish Sood.
Sood was the general secretary in the last team.
Top party leaders who have lost their place in the team are Vijay Jolly, former Delhi mayor Rajni Abbi, Satish Upadhyay, S P Singh and Poonam Azad.
Vijay Jolly is also the former spokesperson of the party. The new list of vice presidents include- Mohan Singh Bisht, Anita Arya, Kulwant Rana, Amir Raja Hussain and Abhey Verma. Atif Rashid has been nominated as the Minority Morcha president, Gaurav Khari as the Yuva Morcha president and Sudha Sharma as the Mahila Morcha president.
The party has also nominated ten secretaries and four spokespersons. Among the spokespersons, Sanjay Kaul and Sambit Patra were part of the old team, while Aman Sinha and Rajeev Babbar are new entrants. The 42-member list of new state office bearers is similar to the predicted list published in the Millennium Post last Monday. According to sources, the Poorvanchal has also not been properly represented in the team.
In an effort to maintain caste, community and regional balance, Goel has also inducted two councillors in his team, but according to party insiders the team lacks ‘mass leaders’.
‘Among the three general secretaries, only Ramesh Bidhuri enjoys an individual vote base. The other general secretary, Shikha Rai, has never contested an election and the third one, Jai Prakash, lost the only election he has contested from the Sadar Bazar constituency in the 2008 Delhi Assembly elections,’ said a senior party leader.
‘As general secretaries are considered next only to the president in the party hierarchy, those chosen for the posts should have been stronger mass leaders,’ he added.
Shikha Rai is considered to be very close to the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, and Jai Prakash is considered to be close to Goel.
In the new team, Goel has dropped eight former vice-presidents but has retained two, former mayor Prithvi Raj Sahni and senior party leader Pawan Sharma.
The three councillors who have secured places in the new team as vice-presidents are former mayor of North DMC Meera Aggarwal, former standing committee chairman of North DMC Yogendra Chandolia, and chairman of remunerative project cell Ashish Sood.
Sood was the general secretary in the last team.
Top party leaders who have lost their place in the team are Vijay Jolly, former Delhi mayor Rajni Abbi, Satish Upadhyay, S P Singh and Poonam Azad.
Vijay Jolly is also the former spokesperson of the party. The new list of vice presidents include- Mohan Singh Bisht, Anita Arya, Kulwant Rana, Amir Raja Hussain and Abhey Verma. Atif Rashid has been nominated as the Minority Morcha president, Gaurav Khari as the Yuva Morcha president and Sudha Sharma as the Mahila Morcha president.
The party has also nominated ten secretaries and four spokespersons. Among the spokespersons, Sanjay Kaul and Sambit Patra were part of the old team, while Aman Sinha and Rajeev Babbar are new entrants. The 42-member list of new state office bearers is similar to the predicted list published in the Millennium Post last Monday. According to sources, the Poorvanchal has also not been properly represented in the team.