After locking horns with the Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, last week over the candidature of Vijay Goel for the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat, Delhi BJP president O P Kohli is again in news: this time for his differences with his predecessor, Dr Harsh Vardhan. While Vardhan’s name has been doing the rounds for the East Delhi Parliamentary seat, Kohli, say party insiders, is set against the candidature due to bitter experiences in the past with Vardhan. Kohli had resigned as the party’s national election officer in 2007 (he was involved in organisational elections) following differences with Vardhan, who was then the Delhi unit president of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Party insiders claim Kohli is now backing another BJP leader, V K Monga, for the East Delhi seat against his one-time bete noire. On Friday, Monga met senior party leaders Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar, along with nine councillors, to prove his “popularity”, say insiders.
