Delhi poll: BJP repeats Bidhuri kin despite losing in 2015

If all poll trackers are predicting that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will struggle to reach double digits in the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls, the choice of candidates are the key to swing the result in its favour.

In spite of that, the BJP seems to be repeating candidates who have been tried and failed in the past. One prime example of that is Vikram Bidhuri, nephew of BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri.

Sources say there has been opposition within the state BJP over his name, given his past record in 2015 when he contested on a BJP ticket from Tughlakabad.

On Friday, when Manoj Tiwari was reading out the names of the candidates, he specially mentioned that Vikram Bidhuri is related to Ramesh Bidhuri. Many believe, it was done with intent.

He had unsuccessfully contested the 2015 Assembly polls when crowd pullers like Navjot Singh Sidhu, now a Congressman, held a road show for him from Harikesh Nagar to Okhla Phase-I, appealing to the people to vote for him.

"It is Tughlakabad's good luck that Ramesh Bidhuri was elected three times as its MLA. But unfortunately the BJP could not come to power in Delhi. This time he has gone to the Lok Sabha and you have to elect his nephew, Vikram Bidhuri, and help the BJP in forming the government in the national capital," Sidhu had then appealed, but to no avail.

In 2015, the junior Bidhuri managed to get barely half the votes of what AAP's Sahi Ram Pahalwan secured. While the AAP candidate had secured 62.40 per cent votes, Bidhuri had barely managed 29.70 per cent votes, in spite of high voltage campaigning. Yet, in 2020, Bidhuri junior is once again being fielded from Tughlakabad.

Moreover, Vikram Bidhuri's criminal past also raises questions. According to MyNeta, a portal that profiles candidates including their criminal history, the younger Bidhuri was convicted in cases related to rioting, voluntarily causing hurt among others.

The portal also claims that cognizance has been taken against him in cases pertaining to sections 147,148,149,323,325,336,427,435,452,394 and 397.

Murmurs of discontent are growing louder within the Delhi BJP as a faction claims that the BJP CEC gave in to Ramesh Bidhuri, who held the seat for three terms before becoming a party MP in 2014.

Many within the Delhi BJP think that fielding Vikram Bidhuri twice from his uncle's seat may well be construed as "dynastic politics" by the people of Delhi, something the BJP so vehemently opposes and accuses parties like the Congress, NCP or DMK or harbouring.

( With inputs from IANS )