 "BJP candidate from New Delhi assembly constituency Parvesh Verma celebrates outside a counting centre after claiming victory in the Delhi Assembly polls amid in New Delhi. PTI")
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has stunned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Delhi Assembly elections and is set to return to power in the capital after 27 years. The saffron party is leading in 48 of the 70 seats and the AAP has been reduced to 22. If that wasn’t enough, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal suffered a defeat at the hands of Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma.
We take a look at the close contest and the rise of Verma.
Arvind Kejriwal vs Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal has been contesting from the New Delhi constituency since his party entered politics. A three-time MLA, he was up against BJP’s Parvesh Verma and Congress’s Sandeep Dikshit. The two are sons of former Delhi chief ministers, Sahib Singh Verma and Sheila Dikshit.
As expected, it was a close contest but a two-pronged one between Verma and Kejriwal. As votes were counted, Kejriwal first trailed, then had a lead and then trailed again, first with a margin of 200-odd votes. The gap became wider – to 1000 and more. In the end, Verma emerged victorious, defeating Kejriwal by 4089 votes. Sandeep Dikshit with only 4568 votes came a distant third.
It was in the New Delhi constituency that Kejriwal defeated Sheila Dikshit in 2013, ending her 15 years in power. The seat, in many ways, reflects the rising or waning popularity of a party in the Union Territory.
The rise of Parvesh Verma
The 47-year-old Verma comes from a political family. His father Sahib Singh Verma was the former Delhi chief minister, from February 1996 to October 1998. His uncle Azad Singh served as a mayor of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation and contested the Mundka Vidhan Sabha constituency on the BJP ticket in the 2013 assembly elections.
Parvesh Verma went to Delhi Public School in RK Puram and then pursued an arts degree from Kirori Mal College in Delhi University. He also holds a master of administration degree from Fore School of Management.
The “Kejriwal slayer” as he is dubbed now has been with the BJP for close to three decades.
He was first elected to the Delhi Assembly in 2013. He contested from the Mehrauli seat and then defeated Yoganand Shastri of the Congress, the then-incumbent Vidhan Sabha speaker.
In 2014, he contested the Lok Sabha elections and was elected as an MP from the West Delhi constituency. He retained the seat in 2019, defeating Congress’s Mahabal Mishra by a margin of 578,486 votes, setting a record as the candidate with the highest victory margin in Delhi.
As an MP, he served as a member of the Joint Committee on Salaries and Allowances of Members of Parliament and a member of the Standing Committee on Urban Development. He also sparked controversy when he called for the “boycott of Muslims” in 2022.
Parvesh Verma did not contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections after he was denied a party ticket despite being a two-time MP from West Delhi. However, he kept his commitment to the party and started working on a different plan – to contest the 2025 Delhi Assembly election. “I was told just two months back that I needed to contest from New Delhi [Kejriwal’s seat],” he was quoted as saying by India Today TV after his victory.
The BJP leader started his campaign in January and promised a Capital without pollution, better infrastructure, government jobs, houses for slum-dwellers and a Sabarmati-like revamp of the Yamuna waterfront.
He visited slums in New Delhi and promised free water and electricity. “Whoever is getting clean water and zero electricity bills, please vote for Kejriwal, and whoever isn’t, please vote for BJP,” the leader said ahead of the polls.
Accompanying him on his campaign trail were his wife Swati and daughters, Trisha and Sanidhi Verma. They participated in rallies, community events and voter outreach programmes. It helped consolidate his image as a family man.
The New Delhi contest also got dirty. The AAP accused the BJP neta of giving Rs 1,100 to women to “buy their vote”. However, the BJP leader said that he was helping them through his father’s non-profit, according to a report in The Indian Express. The Kejriwal-led party also accused the BJP of distributing freebies and tampering with the voters’ list.
Parvesh Verma too hit back hard. He slammed the AAP over air and Yamuna pollution and Delhi’s poor infrastructure. He even criticised Kejriwal over his residence, taking forward the BJP’s “Sheeshmahal” charge”.
It was a bitter fight. In the end, the voters seemed to be more convinced by Verma than Kejriwal.
The road ahead for Parvesh Verma
By defeating Kejriwal, Verma has grabbed the attention of the nation. The question everyone is asking is, will he then become the next Delhi CM?
“I want to thank the people of Delhi. The credit for the victory goes to PM Modi,” Verma said. “I want to thank Amit Shah and BJP president. The double engine government will work for the development of Delhi,” told CNN-News18.
He said that the party’s central leadership and BJP MLAs would decide who would be the chief minister of Delhi. “I am someone who doesn’t get too excited when happy or doesn’t get too sad when upset. Whatever the BJP high command decides (on the CM post), it would be accepted by all,” he said.
Parvesh Verma and his daughters celebrate
For now, Verma has every reason to cheer. He was seen celebrating his big win against Kejriwal. He was waving the party flag as workers lifted him on his shoulders.
Verma’s daughters Trisha and Sanidhi were thrilled. “We thank the people of New Delhi for their support. The people of Delhi will never make the mistake of giving a second chance to a person who runs the government by telling lies,” they told ANI. “We knew that there would be a clear-cut victory, we were just waiting for the right time. This time the people of Delhi did not let lies win.”
With inputs from agencies