BJP MP who went to extremes to polarise voters on Shaheen Bagh scores 0 out of ten

Feb 11, 2020

New Delhi: If Delhi poll result is a barometer for performance of an MP, then BJP’s controversial member of parliament Parvesh Verma scored a fantastic duck. Out of the ten Assembly seats that falls under his West Delhi constituency, none have been won by the BJP.

Tilak Nagar, Janakpuri, Madipur, Rajouri Garden, Hari Nagar, Vikaspuri, Uttam Nagar, Dwarka, Matiala and Najafgarh – you name it, all have been taken control by AAP candidates with decisive margin. His protege Tajinder Bagga who was fighting from Hari Nagar and Verma made numerous rounds to bolster his campaign also lost from the seat. So much so, Verma unveiled a constituency specific manifesto for Bagga. Nothing seems to have cut the ice.

Same goes with Rajiv Babbar, who fought from Tilak Nagar, a constituency Bagga hoped he would get a ticket from. Babbar is not a newbie. In run of to 2019 general election, the BJP had appointed Rajiv Babbar, as in-charge of East Delhi parliamentary constituency. Babbar held “training” for BJP workers back then but in 2020, failed to perform himself.

Ashish Sood from Janakpuri is another old horse. AAP’s Rajesh Rishi outperformed BJP’s Ashish Sood by a magnificent margin that went above 50,000 votes.

The spectacular debacle is surprising given BJP’s main electoral agenda till they raised ‘Shaheen bagh’ — regularisation of unauthorised colonies find resonance in this Lok Sabha constituency. A large chunk of those 1,700 unauthorised colonies fall under Verma’s area. Yet, this debacle raises question on his ability as well as his aggressive campaign pitch probably backfiring.

Verma, an otherwise non controversial MP and son of BJP’s former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma came to the limelight when he attacked the blockade at Shaheen Bagh and even suggesting that the protesters are “rapists and murderers”. Even on the day of election, half way through, he tweeted a provocative video that started with Shaheen Bagh bashing and ended with “Jai Shri Ram”, a religious chant, intended to polarise the voting.

But February 11 proved, people from his own constituency didn’t buy his argument, leave aside people of Delhi listening to him. At least two Delhi BJP leaders told IANS on condition of anonymity that “few of our leaders went a bit too far on Shaheen Bagh”, without naming Verma. IANS