Former UPA minister Krishna Tirath to join BJP

NEW DELHI, January 19, 2015 Agencies :  Hours before the meeting of the BJP Central Election Committee and Parliamentary Board on Monday former UPA Minister Krishna Tirath met BJP president Amit Shah at his residence. She is expected to formally join the party later in the day.”My role in the party is yet to be decided,” she said after her meeting with Mr. Shah.Apparently unaware of his party member joining the BJP, Congress leader and campaign committee chief Ajay Maken said “this reveals BJP’s nervousness.”Ms. Tirath is the fourth Delhi leader to join the BJP in the last four days after Kiran Bedi, Shazia Ilmi and Vinod Kumar Binny (both former Aam Aadmi Party members).Chaired by Mr. Shah, the BJP CEC will clear the names of candidates for the 70-member Delhi Assembly elections on February 7. The Board may take a view on projecting Ms. Bedi as a chief ministerial candidate.Of interest will be the seat from where Ms. Bedi will contest. She has been



positioned as the party’s ``face’’ in the elections but there is division within the Delhi BJP on her elevation in the party and whether she should be projected as the chief ministerial candidate.So far the BJP has not declared chief ministerial face in any of the recently-held Assembly elections including in Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand or Jammu and Kashmir. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been the face and has led the campaign everywhere.But in Delhi, faced with a stiff challenge from the AAP, the party seems to be changing tack. BJP and Akali Dal together had won 32 seats in the Delhi elections held in 2013 while the AAP had got 28 seats and the Congress finished a poor third with eight seats.AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal had formed the government with outside support from the Congress but he resigned after 49 days for lack of support to the Lokpal Bill in the Assembly leading to President’s rule in Delhi.Keywords: Krishna Tirath, BJP, Amit Shah, Delhi Assembly elections