NEW DELHI: Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari on Saturday said that his party candidates participated in the elections with positivity, which they derived from their leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In a candid admission, Tiwari said that he was ‘internally scared’ as he was facing a three-time Delhi chief minister and Congress veteran Sheila Dikshit in the polls.
The Bhojpuri actor-turned-politician said that party chief Amit Shah had consoled him after reports of his defeat at the hand of Dikshit. “It was being speculated that Dikshit had made the contest in northeast Delhi tough. The party president must have also heard this. He rang me up and comforted me. He asked me to focus on the campaign,” Tiwari said at a press conference called by newly elected seven NJP Members of Parliament from Delhi.
About the campaigning in Delhi, Tiwari said he had to do a roadshow in South Delhi for party candidate Ramesh Bidhuri as ‘rumours’ were being spread that Poorvanchali voters were not supporting him.
Bidhuri, who defeated AAP candidate Raghav Chadha from South Delhi by 3.67 lakh votes, was not present in the press conference due to some court engagement. Meenakshi Lekhi, who is re-elected from New Delhi seat, was also not present due to health issues.
All the newly elected BJP MPs — Gautam Gambhir (east Delhi), Parvesh Verma (west Delhi), Hans Raj Hans (northwest Delhi), Harsh Vardhan (Chandni Chowk) and Tiwari — thanked the people of Delhi for reposing their faith in the party and voting for them.
They also expressed gratitude towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah for guidance and leadership during the elections. West Delhi MP Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, who won from West Delhi with the highest margin of 5.78 votes, said that the spectacular victory of BJP necessitated that the faith of the people was redeemed by the winners.“Delhi’s development will be successful when all three governments are of BJP,” the son of former Delhi chief minister Saheb Singh Verna said referring to central government, state government and local bodies.
The new MPs also asserted that the BJP will come back to power in Delhi in 2020 Assembly polls. Vardhan said Delhiites are disillusioned with both the AAP and the Congress. “The Lok Sabha poll results are beginning of the end of AAP and it’s government in Delhi,” Vardhan said, claiming that the party may disintegrate after a defeat in the next year’s Assembly polls in Delhi.
Sufi singer Hans Raj Hans, who won North West Delhi for the BJP, Union minister Vijay Goel, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta were present at the event.