From overseeing the celebrations of the Narendra Modi government’s 12 years at the Centre in June to rejigging of the city team in two months and preparing for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls later this year: Union Minister Harsh Malhotra, the newly-appointed Delhi BJP chief, has his calendar packed.

Malhota, who is also the East Delhi MP and holds the portfolio as Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, and Corporate Affairs, in an interview with The Indian Express on Friday, said he is “confident that he can balance” all the responsibilities.

“Those who work a lot are given more work and responsibilities because the party knows that they have the capacity for it… time management was part of my schedule while working as Lok Sabha MP as well as a minister…So, I am comfortable in discharging my duties as a president also.”

As a Union Minister, Malhotra said he will be giving special attention to decongesting Delhi’s major corridors to provide relief to commuters from heavy traffic jams.

Successfully holding fortnight-long programmes in June, marking 12 years of Modi government at the Centre. The programmes, he said, will be held from June 5 to June 21. He said he held a meeting on Thursday with all party MPs, MLAs, councilors and district presidents to discuss preparations for the programmes.

Calling the upcoming MCD polls in December his next major responsibility, Malhotra said the party was fully geared for the civic elections. “Preparation for the upcoming polls is already underway…BJP is not a party that starts studying two days before examinations. We work throughout the year, preparation on ground level is already underway and active campaigning and meetings will be visible six months ahead of the civil polls,” he said.

Describing the BJP’s grassroots workers as the party’s “arms and ammunition”, Malhotra said, “We held our first meeting yesterday, which was attended by all the district presidents. The gaps in the organisation at the district-level will be filled on priority. The formation of new teams for our districts will be done in the next 15 to 20 days. The re-organisation of unit and office bearers will also be done within one to two months.”

On strengthening public outreach, he added that all BJP MPs would be asked to spend a day in every Assembly constituency for better ground-level engagement.

Before he was elected as an MP from the East Delhi constituency, Malhotra had served as the Mayor of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), which was later merged with the MCD.

Speaking about decongesting the Capital, the Union Minister said that some of the most congested corridors like Kalindi Kunj, Faridabad and Sarai Kale Khan junction have ongoing road projects under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, including a proposed elevated corridor connecting Sarai Kale Khan to Sohna and Faridabad to Jewar. This, he said, is expected to be completed by December.

Talking about perennial snarls between Noida-Kalindi Kunj Link Road, he said a Rs 650-crore project has been proposed to decongest and make the Kalindi Kunj stretch signal-free. Malhotra added that key arterial roads, including the Ashram-Badarpur corridor, Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road and the Punjabi Bagh-Tikri Border stretch are also being taken up for improvement.

He added, “The coordination between the government and the party has always been good. Even as MP, we have taken up all party programmes related to, and the organisation also felt that MP was needed here. All the MPs and MLAs participated in all the programmes and celebrated the one year of Delhi government together and held several public meetings and programs also. The BJP has always had and continues to have coordination with everyone at the state-level.”