Ruling out any rifts within the Bharatiya Janata Party, its president Amit Shah on Thursday said that the party would emerge victorious with two-third majority in the upcoming Delhi elections.
Claiming that the induction of former Team Anna member Kiran Bedi as the party’s chief ministerial candidate was not a “compulsion”, he said her clean image would help the party.
When asked about reports suggesting that certain Delhi BJP leaders were not happy with the move to get Ms. Bedi into the fold, he said that he could not “change his strategy as per media’s perception“.
“I can only say that according to our strategy, and I say that with a lot of responsibility, that BJP would emerge victorious with two-third majority,” Mr. Shah said during an interview with a TV news channel.
Stressing that there was no infighting within the party, he said, “In a political party, such kind of feelings cannot remain hidden, they come to surface. Today after the date of cancellation of nomination, not one candidate of BJP is standing as a rebel...top to bottom...all are one.”
Reiterating that Ms. Bedi’s induction into BJP was not a “compulsion”, the BJP leader said that BJP had always given a chance to people with a clean track record and who are active in social arena.
“Our agenda is to move from a simple majority to two-thirds majority and for that I am confident that Kiran Bedi’s image..of someone who has been fighting against corruption and crime...would help,” he said.
“Kiran Bedi is not fighting the election alone and the cabinet is not going to be formed by her alone, it will be formed by other workers of the BJP,” he further said.
He also said that publicising the issue as a “leadership crisis” in the party only shows that the media had gone bankrupt of issues against the party.
