Date:03/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/03/stories/2008110352650400.htm

New Delhi

BJP leaders stage protest rallies

Staff Reporter

Such pressure tactics should be avoided, says party Chief Ministerial candidate V.K. Malhotra

Photo: V.V. Krishnan

‘Unhappy’: BJP workers staging a protest outside the residence of party Chief Ministerial candidate V. K. Malhotra on Sunday against the selection of candidates for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections.

NEW DELHI: A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party released its first list of 53 names for the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls, some leaders along with their supporters protested outside the residence of the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate V.K. Malhotra on Sunday.

The party, which has given four seats to the Shiromani Akali Dal as part of an electoral understanding, is expected to announce the names of the remaining 13 seats in the next couple of days.

The protesters raised slogans and alleged that several candidates selected by the party were “outsiders” and should therefore be changed. Accusing the senior party leaders of having “sold” the tickets, the supporters alleged that genuine and deserving candidates had been ignored. The protest also resulted in a traffic jam outside Prof. Malhotra’s residence on Bishamber Das Marg in the morning.

While stating that such pressure tactics should be avoided, Prof. Malhotra said: “We will certainly give a thought to their demands.”

The senior BJP leader said the party was still deliberating on the names for the remaining 13 seats and certain issues that had to be ironed out.

Some tickets seekers had also staged a protest outside the Delhi BJP office on Pandit Pant Marg on Saturday. “We follow a democratic process of selection and there is bound to be disappointment when there are more than one contender for each seat,” Delhi BJP chief Harsh Vardhan had said.

Earlier on Saturday, former Chandni Chowk MP Vijay Goel had raised objections to the manner in which tickets were being distributed. He had even walked out of the Election Committee meeting held at the Pandit Pant Marg headquarters of the Delhi BJP. Another senior leader, Prof. O. P. Kohli too had staged a walkout to register his protest over the manner in which some candidates were being selected in East Delhi.