Man of the moment: BJP’s Harsh Vardhan
9 Dec 2013 5:55 AM IST
The senior leaders however delivered very diplomatic answers on this particular issue but party workers were unanimously of the view that it was Vardhan who saved the party in this election.
When asked this question directly, Vardhan just smiled and asked media persons not to make this an issue at this time. Vardhan was glued to television with his family and dozens of journalists since early morning. At around 11.30 am he called all the journalists in a small room of his house and offered them refreshment. ‘Please don’t take bytes and no questions please. I will talk to you only after entire results are out,’ he said. Eventually, he silently moved out to meet senior leaders at around 2.00 pm.
Harsh Vardhan, announced as BJP’s chief ministerial candidate just 41 days before polling in the city after a bitter internal squabble, has once again proved his leadership skills by steadfastly uniting various factions. This brought the requisite enthusiasm among workers, which steadied the party’s course to regain power from the Congress after 15 years.
An RSS member in his younger days, 59-year-old Vardhan, a practicing ENT surgeon known for his disarming simplicity, successfully connected with the voters, while leading a high-voltage campaign from the front despite undercurrents of friction in the Delhi party unit. People close to him said Vardhan’s easy-going attitude and disarming smile were his greatest assets because of which the party drew support from various quarters, some of them unexpected.
Vardhan, who won Krishna Nagar assembly seat for the fifth consecutive times by bagging 58.33 percent votes, made his political debut in 1993 by contesting assembly elections from this very seat.
He was health minister of Delhi from 1993-98 and is known for pioneering the pulse polio campaign in Delhi, which was later spread to the entire country and followed by several other countries. He has also written a book called ‘Two Drops of Life’ based on the programme and its model.
Vardhan is known to share a very cordial relationship with RSS and people close to him say he still retains the Swayamsevak’s tendency to downplay the Swayam (self), while giving precedence to Seva (service). It was for his dedicated service and integrity that former Prime Minister and BJP patriarch AB Vajpayee had once called him Swasthya Vardhan (one who cares for health).
After being appointed Delhi BJP chief in 2003, Vardhan is credited with rebuilding the party at the grass root level after the party’s defeat in the assembly polls that year. Under his leadership the party achieved victory in 2007 in Delhi Municipal Corporations (MCD). But the party witnessed a hectic lobbying for the chief ministerial candidate of the party in 2008 assembly elections, when party decided to drop the aged VK Malhotra.
Vardhan was blamed for his party’s wrong decision on chief ministerial candidate and was sidelined since then. It was only around a month ago when BJP realised that it was going to lose Delhi again if ‘Doctor Sahab’ is not called, AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal had launched scathing attacks on Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel.
The party workers are of the view that if Vardhan was not given the rein of election campaign in Delhi, debutante Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would have formed the government and BJP once again would have repeated its performance of 2008.
When asked this question directly, Vardhan just smiled and asked media persons not to make this an issue at this time. Vardhan was glued to television with his family and dozens of journalists since early morning. At around 11.30 am he called all the journalists in a small room of his house and offered them refreshment. ‘Please don’t take bytes and no questions please. I will talk to you only after entire results are out,’ he said. Eventually, he silently moved out to meet senior leaders at around 2.00 pm.
Harsh Vardhan, announced as BJP’s chief ministerial candidate just 41 days before polling in the city after a bitter internal squabble, has once again proved his leadership skills by steadfastly uniting various factions. This brought the requisite enthusiasm among workers, which steadied the party’s course to regain power from the Congress after 15 years.
An RSS member in his younger days, 59-year-old Vardhan, a practicing ENT surgeon known for his disarming simplicity, successfully connected with the voters, while leading a high-voltage campaign from the front despite undercurrents of friction in the Delhi party unit. People close to him said Vardhan’s easy-going attitude and disarming smile were his greatest assets because of which the party drew support from various quarters, some of them unexpected.
Vardhan, who won Krishna Nagar assembly seat for the fifth consecutive times by bagging 58.33 percent votes, made his political debut in 1993 by contesting assembly elections from this very seat.
He was health minister of Delhi from 1993-98 and is known for pioneering the pulse polio campaign in Delhi, which was later spread to the entire country and followed by several other countries. He has also written a book called ‘Two Drops of Life’ based on the programme and its model.
Vardhan is known to share a very cordial relationship with RSS and people close to him say he still retains the Swayamsevak’s tendency to downplay the Swayam (self), while giving precedence to Seva (service). It was for his dedicated service and integrity that former Prime Minister and BJP patriarch AB Vajpayee had once called him Swasthya Vardhan (one who cares for health).
After being appointed Delhi BJP chief in 2003, Vardhan is credited with rebuilding the party at the grass root level after the party’s defeat in the assembly polls that year. Under his leadership the party achieved victory in 2007 in Delhi Municipal Corporations (MCD). But the party witnessed a hectic lobbying for the chief ministerial candidate of the party in 2008 assembly elections, when party decided to drop the aged VK Malhotra.
Vardhan was blamed for his party’s wrong decision on chief ministerial candidate and was sidelined since then. It was only around a month ago when BJP realised that it was going to lose Delhi again if ‘Doctor Sahab’ is not called, AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal had launched scathing attacks on Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel.
The party workers are of the view that if Vardhan was not given the rein of election campaign in Delhi, debutante Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would have formed the government and BJP once again would have repeated its performance of 2008.
Next Story
