Jaitley fails to have his way on Darbhanga, New Delhi

NEW DELHI: Thursday’s discussion on candidates for Bihar, Delhi and other States at the residence of Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh continued for more than an hour.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi and other leaders, including Radha Mohan Singh and Hriday Nath Singh were present when the Bihar candidates’ list was discussed. Delhi State unit president O.P. Kohli and some others were present when the seven candidates for Delhi were finalised.
Delhi candidates

For Delhi, the BJP’s declared candidates are: Vijay Goel (New Delhi); Vijendra Gupta (Chandni Chowk); B.L. Sharma ‘Prem’ (North East); Chetan Chauhan (East Delhi); Meera Kanwaria (North West); Jagdish Mukhi (West Delhi); and Ramesh Bidhuri (South Delhi).

The Bihar candidates are: Sanjay Jaiswal (West Champaran); Rama Devi (Sheohar) and Kirti Azad (Darbhanga).

Mr. Jaitley was not able to have his way on getting the Darbhanga ticket for Sanjay Jha, considered close to him, Mr. Sushil Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

A Bihar party leader said: “Mr. Jha was made a member of the Bihar Legislative Council not very long ago. Mr. Jaitley was instrumental in getting him that position. Now he was trying to get him a ticket for Parliament.”
Charge against Jha

Ironically, at the last meeting of the Central Election Committee on March 17 – Mr. Jaitley had boycotted it – a senior member of the committee described Mr. Jha as a “wheeler-dealer.”

Another said Mr. Jha was “Mr. Nitish Kumar’s mole in the BJP.”

One committee member went so far as to say that Mr. Jha’s only job in the party was to convey to the Janata Dal (United), through Mr. Nitish Kumar, all that happens in the BJP.

Keeping in mind the criticism by several committee members, Mr. Jha’s name was dropped on Thursday.

The irony was that while Mr. Jaitley was opposed to the induction of Sudhanshu Mittal as one of the “prabharis” in the north-east on “ethical” grounds, party leaders privately charged him with trying to promote Mr. Jha in Bihar.

It seems that when the turn came for discussions on the Delhi list, Mr. Goel was able to get the ticket for the New Delhi seat.

It is understood that some in the party, including Mr. Jaitley, wanted Mr. Goel to contest from Chandni Chowk, a constituency once represented by him, and field Delhi Mayor Aarti Mehra from New Delhi, the party sources said.
3 Gujarat nominees

The party also finalised candidates for three more Gujarat seats – 22 candidates were finalised earlier.

In Bhavnagar, sitting MP Rajendra Singh Rana will be fielded again. In Amreli, the candidate is Narayanbhai Kachia and the Dahod (ST) nominee is Somji Damor.

The Dahod seat was represented in the 14th Lok Sabha by Babubhai Katara, who was disqualified after he was caught in a human trafficking case.

For the Udhampur constituency in Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP’s nominee is Nirmal Singh.

The Jammu candidate is Leela Karan Sharma, who was active in the Amarnath agitation.

Source : The Hindu