NEW DELHI: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is the Delhi in charge for the Lok Sabha elections, on Sunday, pulled up the saffron party’s media team reportedly for several leaked stories regarding internal matters to newspapers and channels.
Irked with stories about infighting and internal party issues, the minister has asked team members to restrain themselves.“Nirmalaji did not appreciate negative stories in the media, especially during elections. She said that though the BJP is a big party and such issues don’t affect it, they cast doubt on credibility with the elections around the corner,” said Ravinder Gupta, general secretary of Delhi BJP.
Gupta has recently been appointed as the Delhi BJP’s head of media and publicity for the general election.
Sitharaman held a meeting of media panellists and spokespersons on Sunday, which was attended by Gupta. A Delhi BJP leader, who was also at the meeting, said the minister had directed that a system be set up to arrest media leaks.
“The party leaders present in the meeting made allegations against each other. Few members expressed their displeasure on the issue. They asked how reports pertaining to meetings come out while only four-five members are present,” he said.
Later on Sunday meeting, Sitharaman also directed party leaders not to lodge election complaints before the Election Commission (EC) without having vetted them by the legal cell of the state unit.
Another Delhi BJP leader, who was aware of developments, said that the decision was taken to make a case airtight. The trigger was a complaint filed by Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor against the ‘misleading’ radio advertisement by CMArvind Kejriwal on Centre’s funds allocation to Delhi.
Seeking a review of the content of the advertisement, Kapoor had alleged that the facts presented by the CM were incorrect and provoking.