A section of the Bharatiya Janata Party is miffed at the ‘less tactical’ response of its Delhi wing in staking claim on victory after the Supreme Court’s last week verdict laying down governance rules for Delhi government. Senior party leaders from the capital rue that Delhi BJP lost on crucial hours due to lack of strategy to gloat the Wednesday’s orders, letting Aam Aadmi Party hog all the limelight.
According to senior voices in the party, the judgment could have been turned around as a win of the BJP instead of Union Minister Arun Jaitley doing damage control through his blog few days later. “We should have played as per the occasion. This could have been our moment of glory in drubbing the AAP because the court clearly maintained that Kejriwal cannot act like an anarchist. We have been always called out on this buffoonery of his. This was the time to do it once again, backed with the SC order,” said a senior party leader not wishing to be quoted.
Similar resentment was heard from other quarters too who felt that focusing only on water or power crisis is not how Delhi BJP should work. “The SC said that the Lieutenant Governor (L-G) had all the authority in matters of land, policing and public order. Isn’t it a clear indication on who is the boss still? The leadership did not plan a strategy like AAP to interpret the orders in a way that we look like winners. Like AAP training its guns on Centre, we could have used seized the opportunity to do it before they lodged the attack,” another senior member complained.
The AAP government with Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal at its helm has went to town since July 4 on how the SC ruling is a triumphant moment for his government. The CM and his leaders took to social media, asserting that the top court saw the Lieutenant Governor as a roadblock in smoothing functioning of the administration. The party raised its pitch against the Centre, riding on the order that the LG could not interfere with the Delhi government’s decisions. The Delhi BJP leadership, on the other hand, reacted in a “staid” manner, simply “welcoming the SC verdict, asking the CM to work in harmony with the LG”.
Reacting to the July 4 orders, Manoj Tiwari and leader of opposition Vijender Gupta had said that they welcomed the order which was a telling verdict on how CM cannot be an anarchist. The AAP government had claimed that the court order has allowed it to also control the services department that looks after the transfer and posting of IAS officers. The BJP leaders, however, failed to hit at AAP, drawing on the guidelines of home ministry that says that Delhi NCT government appointments is a subject reserved for the Centre.
