BJP red-faced as Shatrughan hails Kejriwal

Swamy too embarrasses party, says middle class voters still uncertain

Two days before Delhi votes, BJP leaders have left the party red faced. Actor-MP Shatrughan Sinha, who had expressed his reservation on projecting Narendra Modi as PM candidate in the run up to May 2014 elections, on Thursday praised his party's number one rival, Arvind Kejriwal, describing him as a "good man."

Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy interestingly tweeted in the afternoon that the “middle class voters still unenthusiastic..Growing concern”.

The middle class is known to be a voter of the BJP and the party is banking on it to put up a good electoral show. Earlier in the morning, Swamy revealed on his twitter handle that his own survey gives BJP 37 which is just one more than the simple majority required in the 70 member assembly to form government.  

“As of now my private and small sample survey puts BJP at 37 with standard deviation of 2. So Kiran Bedi has 95 per ecnt chance of becoming CM of Delhi,” he tweeted. But, hours later he changed it to say that middle class not enthused about polls.

BJP MP from Patna Saheb, Sinha gave two interviews to television channels on Thursday praising Kejriwal, which is perceived as an embarrassment for the party which is very vitriolic about the AAP’s CM candidate, accusing him of habitual liar and absconder, having ran away from the government and Varanasi where Kejriwal had contested and lost heavily to Modi.

"Yesterday, somebody asked me whether one can see the influence of Kejriwal or AAP... Obviously, the power (of Kejriwal) is evident. Kejriwal has given a tough fight in Delhi Polls which is why you are asking me the question," Sinha said in one of the interviews.

He, however, was equally effusive in lauding party CM candidate Kiren Bedi for he said that she too carries “clean image” and administrative experience which was the reason for the BJP to draft and project the outsider former Team Anna member as their poll mascot.

The BJP MP’s divergent views on Kejriwal has surprised party leaders given the latest impression they had, which was that Sinha had build bridges with Modi.  The PM last month had attended his son Kush’s wedding in Mumbai and the actor’s family had cashed in on it by releasing a photograph of the entire family with Modi.

Sinha’s  Modi sceptical views had echoed opened defiance of patriarch L K Advani against the former Gujarat CM’s elevation at the centre stage. He later had changed his stand and described Modi as his “action hero” but remained isolated in the new dispensation.

Even controversial UP MP Shakshi Maharaj, who has been issed a show cause notice for his pro-Hindutva views that gave fodder to the opposition to corner the  government, too had criticsed the NDA government but later rescinded from it under pressure from the party.