After the historic victory in the Delhi Assembly elections, marking the end of the 27-year-long drought, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) high command started brainstorming to pick a name for the post of chief minister. The sources said the saffron party will soon call a formal meeting to discuss the probable names.
The sources said BJP’s ‘giant slayer’ Parvesh Verma who defeated former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal from the New Delhi constituency is leading in the CM race. However, Verma, on Saturday, said the party’s leadership will decide the next chief minister of Delhi. AAP national convener Kejriwal lost the New Delhi seat to Verma by a margin of 4,089 votes. Kejriwal won this seat in 2013, 2015 and 2020.
Among the Sikh faces, Manjinder Singh Sirsa’s name is ahead. The party may pick him to target the Sikh community of Delhi as well as Punjab. Singh won the Rajouri Garden Assembly seat in the Delhi elections by securing more than 18,000 votes.
The third name in the race is Kapil Mishra, who won the Karawal Nagar seat. He could be a choice of the party to appease Purvanchal voters in the national capital. His stand on Hindutva-related issues also makes him the favourite of seniors in the party.
Another name in the CM race is Rekha Gupta who won Shalimar Bagh seat with a 29,595 vote margin. Her name suits to BJP’s commitment to empowering women.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, under whose leadership the party scripted history by breaching AAP’s forte in Delhi, is also in the race to be the next chief minister.
BJP leader Ashish Sood, who won the Janakpuri seat with 18,766 votes margin is also in the race.
(Report by Ila)
