BJP gets Harshvardhan for Delhi CM candidate, Vijay Goel dumped

Highly-placed sources in the BJP have told indiatoday.in that the party wanted to go into the elections with a leader who had a clean image and that made it go with the doctor. The BJP had appointed Vijay Goel as the chief of its Delhi state unit only in February 2013. However, his eight-month tenure has seen high level of factionalism and infighting with the BJP failing to emerge as a strong alternative to the ruling Congress government led by Sheila Dikshit in the state.

After experimenting with Goel, the BJP has now come around to the view that in an urbanised centre like Delhi, the image of candidate leading the charge for the party is of paramount importance for voters and Vijay Goel seems to have failed to inspire the trust of the party cadre, with senior leaders receiving multiple complains about his image and style of functioning.

Internal polls conducted by the BJP showed a high negative rating for Vijay Goel even among traditional BJP voters, with party loyalists not thinking of the BJP as a serious challenger to dethrone the Congress government. According to the C-Voter Opinion Poll done in August for the India Today Group, Vijay Goel had an approval rating of a meagre 12 per cent compared with political debutant Arvind Kejriwal who managed to notch an impressive approval rating of 21 per cent. Despite facing three terms of anti-incumbency, Sheila Dikshit led the race for Chief Minister with a strong approval rating of 40 per cent.

The decision to anoint Harshvardhan will be formalised by the BJP top brass over the next few days. Leaders close to Vijay Goel have been strongly opposing attempts to remove him, saying that the opinion polls are all wrong and that the party will do well under Vijay Goel's leadership. The party top brass now believes that if they are to have any serious chance of forming the government in Delhi then they have no option but to project Harshvardhan as Chief Minister. The party think tank believes that there is a high level of disaffection against the Sheila Dikshit government in Delhi and it is not too late for the BJP to bank on the anti-Congress vote, if it projects the right candidate. Delhi goes to polls, seven weeks from now, on December 4.

The response that Arvind Kejriwal's newly-formed Aam Aadmi Party has been receiving on the ground and in opinion polls has rattled the top BJP leadership, who feel that AAP is filling the space that should have been occupied by the BJP. The India Today Group C-Voter Opinion Poll showed the new Aam Aadmi Party notching up a vote share of an impressive 17 per cent. The party believes that a lot of the votes that AAP is picking up are anti-establishment votes, which should naturally come to the BJP.

Senior BJP leaders also approached social activist Kiran Bedi and offered her a Delhi Lok Sabha ticket. However, Dr Bedi rejected the offer, saying she wants to remain apolitical.

Dr Harshvardhan is a practising Ear-Nose-Throat surgeon and runs a successful clinic in East Delhi's Krishna Nagar. He enjoys a clean image and has the reputation of being an effective administrator. He was the health minister during the BJP government in Delhi in the 1990s. The BJP is now hoping that his appeal as a professional with a clean image will help lure disgruntled voters to the BJP fold

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