Delhi BJP ready for polls

New Delhi: Delhi BJP President Satish Upadhyay on Sunday said the party is fully ready for elections and that if invited to form the government, it would analyse its numbers and take a call accordingly. Upadhyay was speaking after meeting Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and senior leader Nitin Gadkari. 

The Delhi BJP president briefed Singh about the party MLAs’ views on the current political situation in Delhi and reportedly conveyed to him that cobbling together a government would not be a major challenge. After nearly an hour-long meeting, Upadhyay said, “No proposal has come to us as yet on government formation. Whatever will be done will be as per the Constitution. We will take a decision on government formation if such a proposal comes to us.” 

When asked how BJP would manage the numbers as it requires the support of five more MLAs to prove majority in the Assembly, he said the party would respond to the question when it gets an invite for government formation. At present, BJP, along with ally Akali Dal’s lone MLA, has 29 legislators and requires the support of five more MLAs to prove majority in the 70-member Assembly. The effective strength of the Assembly is right now 67 with three BJP MLAs being elected to the Lok Sabha. 

BJP insiders claim at least five Congress MLAs have indicated that they are ready to form a separate group and support a BJP government.

On Saturday, Congress had paraded all its MLAs before the media to show that all its legislators were firmly with the party and rejected speculation of any possible split.  According to sources, Upadhyay conveyed to Singh about the reluctance of party MLAs to face fresh election as they clearly had conveyed to him in a meeting four days ago.

However, a section of the senior Delhi BJP leaders were not in favour of cobbling up a government arguing that it was better to go to polls as BJP had come first in 60 of the 70 Assembly segments in the Lok Sabha polls.

Meanwhile, former RSS leader Ram Madhav, who recently joined BJP, denied reports about RSS asking BJP leaders not to form a government in Delhi. He said the reports were based on speculation and were “incorrect”.

“We have checked with the Sangh leadership and they said they have not given any such directions to any BJP leader,” Mr Madhav said.