With just five months to the municipal elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has begun identifying candidates who could turn the tide in their favour. Delhi BJP president Vijender Gupta said the party would judge potential candidates on four parameters — dynamism, performance, capability to win and delivery strength — before releasing the final list.

The party has also commissioned an internal survey to a Gurgaon-based consultancy firm to judge the mood of the electorate. “The survey will also work as performance audit of the incumbent candidates,” said Gupta.

The BJP currently has 172 councillors in a 272-strong MCD, which is India’s largest and world’s second largest civic body after Tokyo. The Congress has 73 while the Bahujan Samaj Party has 16. The remaining 10 are either independent or represent smaller parties.

The municipal elections to be held in Delhi in February 2012 will be the first major elections after the strong anti-corruption movement that took not just Delhi but the entire country by storm in August this year.

The elections are likely to be a litmus test for both the BJP — which is ruling party in the corporation — as well as the Congress — which is in office in the state assembly and has its candidates in the Lok Sabha from all seven parliamentary constituencies in Delhi.

After boycotting the launch of the Chandni Chowk makeover project, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) hit the streets demanding Sheila Dikshit’s ouster on Friday. Marching from Civic Centre, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, MCD councillors sought a CBI probe to probe the CM’s role in the CWG scandal.

Dressed in black, MCD councillors shouted slogans against Dikshit, demanding that she be put behind bars along with Kalmadi and Kanimozhi.

“Kapil Sibal has said that no one can dislodge Sheila Dikshit but anyone who is booked under corruption should be behind bars. This is a democracy, not a monarchy,” said Vijender Gupta, Delhi state president, BJP.

BJP MP Navjyot Singh Sidhu, said, “The Shunglu committee was appointed by the Prime Minister. So when the report indicted the CM why is no action being taken against her. Kalmadi spent Rs 12,000 and the Delhi government spent Rs 20,000. If Kalmadi is in jail why isn’t Sheila Dikshit?”

The BJP will have no alliance with the BSP, Samjwadi Party (SP) or Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), neither before nor after the 2012 UP assembly election. BJP national president Nitin Gadkari announced this in his inaugural speech at the party’s two-day national executive meet which began on Friday.

The BJP chief’s announcement was greeted with applause. The BJP has twice propped Mayawati as UP chief minister and has paid a heavy price for it. The saffron party which once held sway in the state in the early 90s has been reduced to fighting for third or fourth place behind the SP, BSP and Congress in recent elections.

“The route to (power in) Delhi goes via Lucknow,” said Gadkari. He called upon partymen to seize the opportunity in UP where, he said, the people, disillusioned with the divisive and casteist politics of SP and BSP.

Three BSP leaders, who had contested the last assembly elections in Delhi, today joined the BJP alongwith their supporters.Ved Prakash Maan, Lal Pradhan and O P Malhotra, who had contested the 2009 assembly polls on BSP tickets, joined the BJP in the presence of state party chief Vijender Gupta.

BJP chief Nitin Gadkari  announced the formation of a election reforms committee of the party, which will focus on issues like EVMs, criminalisation of politics and other concerns.

Party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will be the convenor of the committee. “This committee will look into all issues regarding electoral reforms. These will be conveyed to the government and the Election Commission,” Naqvi told mediapersons.

The committee will prepare reports on important electoral issues and submit them to the government and EC, Naqvi said, adding “the committee will work mainly under the guidance of senior party leader L K Advani”.

Members of the committee include party general secretary Thawar Chand Gehlot, secretary Kirit Somaiya, former BJP Uttar Pradesh unit chief Ramapati Ram Tripathi, Satyapal Jain, Bhanwari Lal Purohit, G V L Narasimha Rao and Ramakrishna.

At the ongoing MCD budget session, Congress councillors accused BJP for not carrying out enough development work in the city in the past four years of its tenure. Congress councillor Anita Babbar read out a long list of projects announced by the BJP-led civic body in the last few years which are yet to take off.

MCD’s proposal to make Delhi dhalao-free, Babbar said, is in the dumps today. “Their door-to-door garbage collection project has not picked up. Dhalaos are still overflowing in the city. The garbage disposal system in the city is not very effective,” said Babbar.

BJP attacked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for comparing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) with the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), saying only the mentally imblanced could make such comments.

‘This shows affected mentality. Only people who have lost their mental balance can make such a comparison,’ BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

‘SIMI is a banned terrorist organisation. RSS is a school of nationalism which has been working for the past 85 years. He (Gandhi) is making statements only for political benefit,’ Javedakar said.

He added that Gandhi’s comments reflected ‘immaturity and lack of knowledge’.

Speaking in Bhopal, Gandhi Wednesday termed RSS as ‘fanatical’ and equated it with the SIMI. He said both SIMI and the RSS hold fundamentalist views.

The results of the elections to the Delhi University Students’ Union, in which the RSS-backed ABVP bagged three posts, while the Congress-controlled NSUI had to rest content with just one seat, are being seen in the political circles here as a reflection of the mood prevailing in the city.

The ABVP, which wrested control of the DUSU after a gap of 8 long years, made crucial changes in its candidate-selection process and voter-contact procedures, in keeping with the recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee. The fact that the role of money power had diminished significantly too helped its case.

In an obvious reference to Rahul Gandhi, BJP said the NSUI’s defeat in Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) polls indicates the country’s youth does not accept leaders who “visit Dalit villages wearing Reebok shoes”.

Three months after he took over as Delhi BJP chief, Vijender Gupta has brought in sweeping changes in the organisational set up, with many complaining that seniority was ignored while filling the ranks.

Going against the BJP’s constitution which permits just eight, Gupta has appointed 10 vice-presidents. Pawan Sharma, Vijay Jolly, Kanwar Sain, Imran Ismael, Radheyshyam Sharma, Vishakha Sailani, Rajni Abbi, R P Singh and Satish Upadhyay find themselves in the list.

There will be three general secretaries – party legislator Ramesh Bidhuri, former chief minister Sahib Singh Verma’s son Pervesh Verma and Ashish Sood.

Gupta has appointed 10 secretaries, including Kanwaljit Sherawat, Virender Jual and Narendra Tondon.

The ‘Mahila Morcha’ (women’s wing) of the party will be headed by Shikha Roy, while Veena Sharma will be its general secretary.

Gupta said former Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) president Nakul Bhardwaj will head the youth wing.

Four leaders – Jolly, Sanjay Kaul, Sandip Patra and Mawaram Arya – have been appointed the party’s spokespersons.

Atif Rashid has been appointed as president of the minority morcha, while MLA Satyaprakash Rana will be the chief of Kissan Morcha.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh on Saturday owned up responsibility for the party’s poor electoral showing and stressed that there was no need to “single out one person” for the debacle.

He said if one person has to take the blame “I am taking reponsibility”.

This is the first major gathering of the party leaders to discuss the electoral failure.

Singh said that the poll outcome showed that the country was proceeding towards a bi-polar polity and defended the issuesof Hindutva raised in the election campaign.

However, Singh maintained that there would be no compromise on ideology and added that the party would not regret the issues rose during campaigning like communal reservations as they were in the “country’s welfare”.

The BJP got 116 seats in the Lok Sabha elections – down from the 138 in 2004.