Bhubaneswar: The Delhi poll is done and dusted. The historic Delhi elections are now a history.
For the Bharatiya Janata Party, winning the national capital has been a milestone achievement. The Modi-fied party has vanquished a strong political force in its bastion. The Capital elections will be having a larger repercussion on the country’s political map as a strong contender for the Prime Minister post, Arvind Kejriwal, has been dusted in his citadel.
The battle for power seat is over with the declaration of the results of the Delhi Assembly Elections. The countdown has now begun for who will be adorning the Delhi throne.
The Saffron party has won its second highest total in history of Delhi polity as they won big on 48 seats. In 1993, when the national capital saw its first elections to the State Assembly, BJP had then bagged 49 seats.
However, in the 2025 elections, the Modi-fied party grabbed its highest ever popular vote share of 45.6%. The party’s earliest highest vote share was 42.8% in 1993.
For the BJP, the win has come very hard. The results show Kejriwal-led AAP has polled a high of 43.6% popular vote share. The vote share difference between two archrivals has been mere 2%.
In the significant backdrop, BJP top leaders will bestow the CM crown on a leader who has the following qualities:
- Mass leader
- Hard-working
- Non-controversial
- Political charisma
- Administrative acumen
- Strong cadre connection
It needs mentioning that after hard fought win in Delhi, BJP will choose its CM from the 48 MLAs only. Moreover, given the Delhi’s political environment, it is unlikely that BJP top leadership will spring a surprise Bhajan Lal Sharma, who was made Rajasthan CM in 2023.
A glance at the 48 legislators led to zeroing in on the following candidates.
- SATISH UPASHYAY: A RSS old-timer, the former BJP Delhi President has defeated AAP’s Somnath Bharati in a keenly fought battle. He defeated Bharati by a margin of 2131 votes. He had held the post of vice chairman in New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC). Under his leadership BJP went to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He has been considered as an organisational man.
- VIJENDER GUPTA: The BJP leader who defied AAP wave in 2015, 2020 has made a hattrick of his win this time by defeating AAP candidate in Rohini by a mammoth margin of 37,816 votes. His name as BJP’s CM candidate was doing rounds in 2013 Assembly polls, despite party veteran Harshvardhan in fray.
- PARVESH SHAHIB SINGH: this youth BJP leader, who has been son of former Delhi CM Sahib Singh Verma, has emerged as the giant killer for BJP as he defeated AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal in his bastion. He has defeated Kejriwal with a handsome margin of over 4000 votes.The onerous responsibility of challenging Kejriwal was vested on the leader, in whom politics runs in blood, hints big.
- He had represented West Delhi as MP for two consecutive terms from 2014 to 2024. He had the distinction of winning the West Delhi LS seat with record margin, which entered into the record books as the 6th biggest-margin victory in the country. The top party leadership has not given Lok Sabha ticket to him in 2024, despite winning big twice. The party top brass has a plan in mind then. They pooled his leadership qualities for the Assembly polls, and he delivered big.
WILL BJP FOLLOW KEJRIWAL MODEL OF DY CM?
In the outgoing Kejriwal govt, Manish Sisodia has been the deputy CM. It seems BJP will disband this Dy CM tradition in Delhi.
A look at the cabinet formation in Haryana, Uttarakhand and Goa shows BJP didn’t go for CM-DYCM model, though its usage has been in vogue for the Party in big states from Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra to Odisha.
Howver, the party will give a Sikh leader prominence in its cabinet.
WHO WILL BE CM?
A glance at the profile of the top -3 contenders hints at the CM crown landing on mass leader Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma's head.
