Delhi BJP urges party leadership to rethink stance on subsidies

Party sources said the BJP will have to re-evaluate its stance on subsidies to level the playing field in the Assembly poll due early next year

With the local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders pushing the national leadership to reconsider its position on the issue of offering subsidies, the party, which last held the reins in the national capital in 1998, has been holding detailed deliberations to firm up its strategy for the Delhi Assembly poll due early next year, sources said.

Earlier this week, the party appointed Baijayant Panda as its election in-charge and Ghaziabad MP Atul Garg as the co-in charge for the Delhi election amid hectic parleys with the local leaders.

A senior party leader, who was part of poll manifesto committees in the past, said, “In the last two Assembly election, the issue of promising subsidies has been a point of contention but the party may consider offering subsidies in the upcoming poll because the residents have become accustomed to these benefits. If we don’t offer the same, we may face public resentment.”

‘Denting prospects’

On Wednesday, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal urged voters to re-elect him as the Chief Minister, saying that if the BJP comes to power, it will stop the AAP government’s subsidised services, including electricity, water, and bus rides for women.

With the poll nearing, local BJP leaders are anxious not to let the AAP narrative gain currency, and has been pressing for a change in the party’s stance regarding subsidised services, which it had dubbed as ‘revdi culture’ in the past.

“We have tried to impress upon the senior leadership that people of Delhi believe that if the BJP comes to power, their subsidies will be stopped. This is denting our chances. People are fed up with the AAP government due to corruption and lack of work. But if we don’t act on this particular issue now, we may lose another election to AAP,” another source said.

A member of the BJP’s social media team said the party’s campaign is currently focused on the failures of the AAP government and the need to bring in a double-engine government — a euphemism for the same party ruling both at the Centre and in the State — in the Capital. “But the party will have to re-evaluate its stance on subsidies to level the playing field for the BJP,” he said.

Talking about the party’s prospects, he added, “We will win seats in double digits but if we want to secure a majority, we will have to reassure the people that their subsidies will not go anywhere.”

In 2020 and 2015, the BJP failed to the cross the double-digit mark in the elections to the 70-member House.

Published - October 18, 2024 12:42 am IST