Who is Dr. Harsh Vardhan? – BJP’s Chief Ministerial Candidate for Delhi

After much internal squabble BJP has declared Dr. Harsh Vardhan as their Chief Ministerial candidate for Delhi. He is not the name that BJP and media talks about regularly, but he is quite popular in the public because of his impressive work, humble nature and easy accessibility. It is time to know more about Dr. Harsh Vardhan because Assembly elections in Delhi are approaching and you are going to cast your precious vote. 

Dr. Harsh Vardhan is a doctor by profession and completed his M.S. in ENT surgery. He was doing private practice before joining politics in 1993. The 59-year-old ENT surgeon was elected from East Delhi’s Krishna Nagar constituency in 1993. Because of his work he retained his seat in the 1998, 2003 and 2008 assembly elections. He says he joined politics for the betterment of the society. He has held many positions during BJP’s tenure between 1993 and 1998: health minister, law minister and education minister. For 40 years he has been a member of the RSS.

Because of his medical background, health has always remained his main area of concern and work. The National Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP) was launched under his supervision during his tenure in the Health Ministry. With this project, the minatory Polio Virus Type 2 was eliminated from Delhi by 1999. Dr. Harsh Vardhan was also the first in planning and implementing anti-tobacco legislation in India (the Delhi Prohibition of Smoking and Non-Smokers Health Protection Act) in 1997.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan has implemented WHO’s Essential Drug Programme. It changed the government’s attitude on public healthcare. He led many other heath programs, like The Cancer Control Programme, the Cataract Free Delhi Programme, and the Shravan Shakti Abhiyan for the rehabilitation of the elderly and the hearing-impaired.

Many regard Dr. Harsh Vardhan as a very humble and a quiet worker who has the potential of working wonders in Delhi. Even people working with him say that he is a very simple personality who believes in transparency at the workplace.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan’s style of working was highly appreciated by his co-workers during his tenure as minister in the Delhi government (1993-98). He has great organizational abilities that he had shown in his work while rebuilding the BJP’s operations in Delhi after the party’s defeat in the 2003 Assembly elections.

He was awarded with the Director-General’s Commendation Medal at a prestigious function held in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, in May 1998 by the World Health Organisation, for his contribution to society. He is the first Indian to receive Rotary International’s “Polio Eradication Champion Award”. He has been honoured with IMA President’s Special Award in 1994.

These strong favoring points have compelled senior leaders of BJP to project him as their Chief Ministerial candidate for Delhi because he can very well fight against the Congress candidate as well as Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). On the other hand other political parties are saying that he is too mild-mannered to be an able leader. But amidst of all this, Dr. Harsh Vardhan does not seem to be a wrong choice by BJP. What do you think?