By IANS,
New Delhi : Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader V.K. Malhotra, who was Friday named the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Delhi elections, has promised to make Delhi “clean, green and truly world class” if the party comes to power.
The BJP central parliamentary board decided on Malhotra’s candidature at a meeting.
“We will fight under his guidance,” BJP spokesperson Arun Jaitley said at a press conference.
After his candidature was announced, Malhotra said, “I hope I meet the expectations of the party. If we come to power, we’ll make Delhi clean, green and truly world class.”
Delhi Pradesh BJP president, Harshvardhan congratulated Malhotra and said, “Malhotra-ji is the most experienced member of our party’s state unit. We hope to get rid of the corruption and inefficiencies during present Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit under his leadership.”
Malhotra started working with the Jan Sangh, the BJP’s fore-runner, in 1958. He has been a former chief executive councillor of Delhi before it became a state. He now represents the South Delhi constituency in the Lok Sabha.
Vijay Goel, an aspirant for chief ministership, went missing from the conference though he was present a little earlier.
Explaining his absence, Jaitley said: “We also have a Haryana state committee meeting and being a member of the committee, Goel is in Sonepat, attending the meeting.”
Besides Delhi, the BJP has to announce its chief ministerial candidates for the elections to Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh assemblies – all ruled by the party.
“We’ll declare the candidates when the time comes,” said Jaitley, indicating that the party could retain current the chief ministers.
Indo-Asian News Service