“We are going to fight Assembly elections under the leadership of Manoj Tiwari and we will rest only after making him the chief minister,” Puri quoted
New Delhi: As Delhi Assembly polls slated for next year, the poll bugle has been sounded in the state as union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that Manoj Tiwari likely the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate.
Senior BJP leader Puri said Our party will fight elections under the leadership of Tiwari, who is also the party’s Delhi chief.
“We are going to fight Assembly elections under the leadership of Manoj Tiwari and we will rest only after making him the chief minister,” Puri quoted
However, he later clarified in a tweet that he meant that the BJP would win with a huge mandate under Tiwari’s leadership and the party has not announced any CM candidate.
On Saturday, Puri had said that he has no intention to run for the post of Delhi chief minister. “The party (BJP) has a well-defined leadership in Delhi. There are people who have grown up in the city. I have no such intentions (to run for the CM’s post). I am happy where I am,” he replied to a question during a press conference.
Puri also denounced the Kejriwal government in Delhi for its “obstructionist irresponsible attitude on every issue pertaining to the public welfare in the national capital”.
Inaugurating a portal which will ‘define and delineate’ the boundaries of 1,731 unauthorized colonies here using satellite imagery, Puri claimed that the AAP government kept delaying the work.
“The similar obstructionist attitude is evident as far as Delhi’s urban mobility infrastructure is concerned. Instead of strengthening the existing urban mobility infrastructure like metro and buses in Delhi, the local government is resorting to election gimmicks,” he said.
“Our party is not against offering benefits to citizens of Delhi, but firmly believe that if DTC had a full fleet of 11,000 buses instead of just 4,000, the benefit to the citizens would have been more pronounced,” Puri said.
“The BJP has been waiting for a long period of time for victory in Delhi. The party has not nominated anyone for the post of Chief minister so far. Manoj Tiwari is the chief. The party is working enthusiastically under his leadership. My statement meant that the BJP would win the upcoming elections with huge votes under Tiwari leadership,” he quoted.
Manoj Tiwari had defeated late Congress leader Sheila Dikshit from the New Delhi constituency in the national election. He was also the BJP’s in-charge for Delhi, where the party later won all 7 Lok Sabha seats. A Bhojpuri singer and actor, Mr. Tiwari is popular among migrants from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
The BJP had contested the 2013 assembly elections under the leadership of Harsh Vardhan. After a fractured verdict, the AAP had formed government in alliance with the Congress, which lasted only 49 days.
In 2015, BJP had placed its bet on Mr. Kejriwal’s associate Kiran Bedi. The experiment failed miserably as the party’s tally came crashing down from 31 to just 3 seats. The AAP had won 67 out of 70 Delhi assembly seats.
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