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The Bharatiya Janata Party may be putting up a brave fight against Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party, however, a lack of effective local leadership may hurt the saffron party’s electoral prospects in the forthcoming Delhi Legislative Assembly polls.
The BJP has been using its national leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh extensively for campaigning in the polls. While also roping in Chief Ministers like Devendra Fadnavis from Maharashtra, Nayab Singh Saini from Haryana and others to reach out to the expat populations residing in the national capital.
The extensive engagement of these senior leaders exposes the fact that the local unit of the BJP is devoid of any tall leaders that can take on Arvind Kejriwal directly.
The same political strategy was implemented by the BJP in 2020 Assembly polls as well, however, it not bear the positive outcome that the party was hoping for and Kejriwal stormed back to power with a massive majority.
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Going to polls on local issues, but roping in Central leaders to bat for the party isn’t likely to help the BJP as these issues can only explained to voters by leaders from grassroots. An active and effective local leadership is therefore extremely necessary for any party to secure power in an Assembly poll. The national leaders can only give a direction to the state leaders, the real political battle needs to be fought by its local unit, sources pointed out.
In Haryana, where the party secured unprecedented third term last year, the BJP had strategically kept Central leadership away from too much campaigning, sources said. This showed positive results for the party as it came back to power and its state leaders were able to explain issues, and reach out to aspirations of local voters effectively.
The BJP has been out of power from the Delhi Assembly since December 1998, when the then BJP Chief Minister Sushma Swaraj lost to the Congress, which installed Sheila Dikshit at the helm for three consecutive terms.
The BJP leadership hopes that continued targeting of senior AAP leaders like Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and others over alleged corruption cases is likely to help the saffron front in the forthcoming polls.
The 70-member Delhi Assembly is scheduled to go for polls on February 5 and the results will be announced on February 8.