Delhi BJP team for municipal polls announced, former AAP leader Shazia Ilmi gets berth

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari on Sunday announced his team to take on the Aam Aadmi Party in the upcoming municipal elections but the new team bore a heavy imprint of union minister Vijay Goel, who headed the Delhi BJP during the 2013 assembly polls.

At least 10 major faces of Goel's team have found prominence in the new list of office-bearers.

Former AAP leader Shazia Ilmi, who was indicted into BJP during Goel's stint, has also been made a vice president in Delhi BJP.

HEAVY IMPRINT OF UNION MINISTER VIJAY GOEL

The developments have added to the speculations that the new state unit president was also siding by the Vijay Goel lobby. A majority of the office-bearers in Satish Upadhyay's team have been removed by Tiwari. These include former general secretaries- South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri, Ashish Sood and Rekha Gupta.

These three have not been given any responsibility in the new team. Instead, Tiwari has included former North Delhi mayor Ravinder Gupta and vice chairman of the standing committee of North MCD, Rajesh Bhatia, as general secretaries. Both these leaders are considered close to Goel.

Goel, currently the minister of sports and youth affairs in the Narendra Modi government, is known to have backed Tiwari's appointment as Delhi BJP president. It is his keen interest for Delhi's political affairs that Goel, despite representing Rajasthan in the Rajya Sabha, has been taking up the issues of odd-even and even demonetisation in the national capital.

35 OFFICE BEARERS APPOINTED

A number of office bearers in the new team are also considered close to Delhi BJP in-charge Shayam Jaju. On Sunday, Tiwari appointed 35 office bearers, including former AAP leader Shazia Ilmi and Kamaljeet Sehrawat.

With this, Ilmi has found her first post in BJP after leaving Aam Aadmi Party. Kamaljeet Sehrawat, who was the chief of Delhi BJP Mahila Morcha, has been made the party's city unit vice president due to her good show in the women's wing, a BJP leader said.

Apart from the two, Jai Prakash, Shikha Rai, Rajiv Babbar, Mohan Singh Bisht, Kulwant Singh Bath and Abhay Verma have been made vice-presidents.

These leaders also occupied prominent place in Goel's team. Ravindra Gupta, Rajesh Bhatia and Kuljeet Singh Chahal have been made general secretaries.

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