Vijender Gupta Delhi BJP chief

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Vijender Gupta, virtually a dark horse in the race for state unit presidentship, was on Friday appointed as the Delhi BJP chief. The appointment to the post was long awaited as the national leadership of the party was not able to form a consensus on any particular leader. He will replace O.P. Kohli as the state unit chief.

The announcement was made following a meeting of the BJP at the residence of senior party leader L.K. Advani, which continued till late in the night. The name of Mr Gupta, currently an MCD councillor, has been doing rounds for sometime, amid other players like Vijay Goel and Nand Kishore Garg. Some had even suggested the name of current chairman of the standing committee of the MCD, Mr Ram Kishan Singhal. However, a consensus had been eluding the national party as some of the factions backed Mr Goel, a former Union minister, while others seemed to be backing Mr Garg, a senior state party leader.
Mr Gupta had earlier shot to some degree of prominence when he took on Union minister Kapil Sibal in the Chandni Chowk parliamentary constituency during the last Lok Sabha elections. However, following his loss, as was the case with the other six BJP candidates, his fate was considered sealed.
Mr Gupta, who had also been the chairman of standing committee of the MCD, continued to be in the reckoning on account of him being on the younger side and also him belonging to the Vaishya community. The state BJP leadership has, in tandem, been going to a leader from the Punjabi and Vaishya communities.
In the run up to the final announcement, the new BJP national president Nitin Gadkari had been holding several meetings with all the factions in the party but was not able to evolve a consensus as the number of people opposing a certain candidate was almost equal. While Mr Goel was said to be getting support from Mr Rajnath Singh, the RSS unit of Delhi was said to be against him. There was no consensus on Mr Garg too.
The state BJP leadership had been at the receiving end of criticism right since the party’s dismal performance in the Delhi Assembly elections in 2008 and then the Parliamentary elections in 2009. Many within the party had alleged that over dependence on the older leaders and not getting out of the Punjabi-Vaishya community, which the party has considered as a stronghold since long.