After list, knives out in BJP

New Delhi Left in the cold, Parvesh Verma supporters take protest to Advani house; say won’t work for BJP in coming elections

Fissures within the Bharatiya Janata Party came out on the Capital’s streets on Friday, less than 24 hours after the party announced its seven Lok Sabha candidates for Delhi.

Beaten by Jagdish Mukhi for the West Delhi seat, considered by many as his for the taking, late Delhi CM Sahib Singh’s son Pervesh Verma today said he now feels “cheated”. As a show of support, Rithala MLA Kulwant Rana and his Mundka counterpart Manoj Shokeen led a group of supporters to protest against the party’s decision outside Lal Krishna Advani’s Prithviraj Road residence on Friday afternoon.

“It is the party’s decision to give ticket to the candidate it considers most winnable,” Parvesh Verma, who did not take part in the protest, said. “But having worked for the constituency for the last two years, I do feel let down. The party has completely ignored my father’s contribution in building a vote bank for BJP in Delhi’s rural areas.”

An MP from what was then the Outer Delhi constituency, Sahib Singh was considered among the BJP’s strongest leaders in Delhi’s rural pockets.