BJP not to project any CM face in Delhi, to depend on Modi

Unlike the last assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party will not project anyone as its chief ministerial candidate in Delhi this time and will depend on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking the party beyond the required halfway mark of 35 seats in the 70-member House.

Planning aggressive electioneering by its star campaigner Modi in Delhi, the BJP prefers polls in the capital to be timed at least some months after the upcoming round of elections in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand which will culminate on December 20.

The intent is to allow Modi enough time to campaign in Delhi as nobody is going to be projected by the party as its chief ministerial candidate unlike the last time when Harsh Vardhan was declared the face, party sources said.

Clubbing the elections with Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand would dilute Modi's focus on Delhi, the party sources argued while explaining why it prefers polls in the capital some time after these two states.

Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir will be having five-phased polls starting on November 25 and ending on December 20, with Modi campaigning aggressively there.

The BJP, which had been dithering over government formation in Delhi till now after it failed to get a majority in the last assembly polls, has now decided to go to the people under Modi's leadership. BJP had won 32 seats, four short of majority.

Aam Aadmi Party, with 28 seats, had formed the government with the support of Congress (8) but Arvind Kejriwal resigned as chief minister on February 14, following which the assembly was kept in suspended animation.