BJP Delhi chief Manoj Tiwari has offered to resign after the Assembly elections debacle. However, the BJP High Command has declined the offer and asked him to continue, as reported by India Today.
Moreover, the eight newly-elected BJP legislators met Delhi party unit chief Manoj Tiwari here on Wednesday.
The eight BJP MLAs are -- Vijender Gupta (Rohini), Mohan Singh Bisht (Karawal Nagar), Jitender Mahajan (Rohtas Nagar), Ajay Mahawar (Ghonda), Anil Kumar Bajpai (Gandhi Nagar), Abhay Verma (Laxmi Nagar), Om Prakash Sharma (Vishwas Nagar) and Ramvir Singh Bidhuri (Badarpur).
The ruling AAP galloped to a landslide victory by winning 62 of the 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly elections in the face of a high-voltage campaign by the BJP, which fielded a battery of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers in its electioneering, spearheaded by Home Minister Amit Shah.
The BJP marginally improved its tally, managing just eight seats from its 2015's tally of three seats. The Congress, which drew a blank in the previous elections, failed to open its account yet again.
AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal will take oath for the third straight time at Ramlila Maidan on February 16.
While it may be a reprieve for Tiwari, whose removal was being talked about ever since Tuesday's election debacle, the BJP leadership is believed to be not in favour of a change of guard at the moment.
Informed sources told IANS that while refusing to accept Tiwari's resignation, which was addressed to BJP President J.P. Nadda, the party leadership is said to have told Tiwari that a change of guard in Delhi will take place as and when "structural changes" are made in BJP's Delhi unit.
The Delhi BJP unit has often been a problematic one because of the internal strife. While Vijay Goel has one set of followers, Tiwari has another set and so does Harsh Vardhan.
There have been demands within the party to remove Tiwari from the top post in Delhi for more than a year now. But then BJP President Amit Shah refused to entertain such demands with Delhi elections in mind, where Purvanchalis constitute a sizeable number. Tiwari often flaunts his Purvanchali origin as his political USP.
But after BJP managed to win just eight seats as against AAP's 62 on Tuesday, the saffron party may seriously think of a complete rejig of the Delhi unit.
In fact, BJP President Nadda has convened a meeting on Wednesday evening to review Delhi poll results and to fix accountability.
(With inputs from Agencies)
