Delhi Assembly Polls 2015: Will BJP Make Political Capital out of Defectors?

By Deepak Parvatiyar

January 22, 2015

Political turncoats look for greener pasture. A notable development in the run up to the Delhi elections is that all but one political defection are to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The only significant reverse defection – from the BJP to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – was when former deputy speaker and dalit face of the BJP, Fateh Singh, joined the AAP along with his three supporters in December.

The outsiders in the BJP have indeed hit the jackpot this election season with seven of the turncoats getting the party ticket to contest elections.

BJP’s Strategy behind Inducting Party Hoppers

There may be two reasons behind the increasing number of people switching their loyalties to the BJP:

• The BJP’s inability to find suitable candidates from within its own cadre in Delhi

• A shrewd tactic to break the rival parties by luring their dissidents with plum positions

Given the fact that the BJP did win 31 seats in the last Delhi assembly elections just a year ago, and that it could make a clean sweep by winning all the seven seats in the last summer’s Lok Sabha elections, the second point seems more plausible under the given scenario.

Yet, the move is a sufficient indicator of political expediency on the BJP’s part – its party leadership had no qualms over opting for the ‘outsiders’.

Prominent AAP Leaders who Switched their Loyalty to BJP

The BJP move also brings to light the issue of political poaching and whether it now lends credence to the AAP’s earlier accusations that the BJP was trying to poach its MLAs, could be anybody’s guess.

The AAP has been the biggest loser with some of its key members deserting the party just before the elections. They include Former Delhi speaker Mohinder Singh Gill, former MLAs Ashok Chauhan (a dalit leader), and Vinod Kumar Binny (who had defeated the Congress heavyweight Dr AK Walia in the last elections and was the very first to rise against the AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal when denied a ministerial berth in the AAP government), Shakeel Anjum Dahalvi, and founding member Shazia Ilmi. Both Ilmi and Anjum had lost elections as AAP candidates. (Ilmi had lost both the Assembly as well as Lok Sabha elections).

With the exception of Ilmi, all the above mentioned AAP defectors promptly found their names in theBJP’s very first list of 62 candidates for Delhi elections. Amond those, the battle to be watched for will be between Binny and the AAP’s Manish Sisodia for the Patparganj seat.

Defectors from the Congress to the BJP

The biggest jolt to the Congress was the last minute defection of its prominent dalit face and former union minister Krishna Tirath to the BJP at the eleventh hour. A three-time MLA, she was elected to the Delhi assembly in 1993, 1998 and 2003 from now abolished Baljeet Nagar seat, a part of which is now in Patel Nagar. She rose to become the Union minister for women and child development in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government between 2004 and 2013. An obliged BJP lost no time in making her a candidate from Patel Nagar constituency barely hours after she joined the saffron brigade.

Besides Tirath, the BJP has also offered its tickets to former Councillor Rajesh Yadav from Badli as well as Dr S.C.Vats, a two-time MLA from Shakur Basti who had lost the election last time. Vats had joined the BJP along with sitting Congress Councillor Jyoti Nitin Aggarwal in December. Vats was also a former secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) and it may be pointed out that under his chairmanship, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Delhi Assembly had indicted Sheila Dikshit government over privatisation of power in 2005. The PAC report was adopted unanimously by the Delhi Assembly which had then even given its nod for a CBI probe. As of today, the matter is sub-judice before the Delhi High Court.

Cadres versus Outsiders Debate Raging within BJP

Media reports suggest that the defections have led to internal dissent within the BJP. Even the party’s face for the Chief Minister’s post, former IPS officer Kiran Bedi, is a last minute induction to the party.

What is significant here is that none of the prominent defections have been seen to the Congress with the exception of the five-time MLA and sitting Janata Dal (United) legislator from Matia Mahal Constituency, Shoaib Iqbal, who has been a regular party hopper though. He is now the Congress candidate from Matia Mahal this time.

Will BJP Benefit by Giving Tickets to Turncoats?

The BJP has been the largest beneficiary of intra-party defections in Delhi. This has though been a trend being seen right from the last General Elections when four of the seven turncoats in Haryana and five of the nine turncoats in Bihar won the Lok Sabha seats for the BJP.
That the BJP is the rising Sun at the moment is an accepted fact given its recent electoral victories. With the new inductions to its fold, it does show that the Lotus could well be the next big thing in Delhi too. But for that, it would require the political turncoats to win elections too. Yet, their successes would also mean a victory for opportunistic politics. Ideology can go for a toss!