With euphoria of the nomination of chief ministerial candidate finally over, the BJP leadership is now settling down for real politics. Though there were shows of bonhomie, developments of the past two days show that the central leadership is going to run the campaign from its national office — 11 Ashoka Road, not leaving it to the mercy of Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel.
The city BJP chief Goel runs his campaign from the state office of the party — 14 Pandit Pant Marg. ‘Vijay Goel reached the state office immediately after his appointment as the president but even after two days of his announcement as the chief ministerial candidate Vardhan is running his political activities from national office,’ said a senior BJP leader. ‘He never visited the state office of the party. He holds public meetings at his residence in Krishna Nagar and political functions at 11 Ashoka Road,’ he added. On the day of his anointment, Vardhan met party veterans and directly went to his residence to meet his supporters and mediapersons.
‘There is no chamber for Harshvardhan at state BJP office, so he is likely to attend only the pre-decided meetings and press-conferences. Furthermore, there is little time left for polls he will have to give more time in field for political campaign,’ said a member of the state election committee of Delhi BJP. The state party office, however, is wearing a deserted look since past two days as the supporters of Vijay Goel have lost the enthusiasm.
The changing address of political activities from state office to national office was signalled with three important meetings in these two days.
The first was a meeting of ‘Election Core Group’ of Delhi BJP on Thursday followed by lunch for mediapersons and a meeting of an association of chartered accountants of Delhi on Friday, both these meetings were at 11 Ashoka Road.
The campaign vehicles designed by Goel are standing in the Delhi office since past three days so are election material lying for distribution.