The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called a meeting of its legislature party this week, during which it will likely finalise the name of Delhi’s next chief minister, people aware of the matter said on Sunday.
The BJP comprehensively won the Delhi polls, winning 48 seats in the 70-member House and ending 27 years of exile from power in the Capital, reducing the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to only 22 seats. However, the BJP contested the elections without a CM face, and over a week after the results were announced, it is yet to announce the new CM. The party has also not announced the names of the six legislators who will be elevated to the Delhi cabinet.
A senior BJP functionary said a legislature party meeting will be held at the party’s Delhi unit office in Pant Marg this week.
“At the legislature party meeting, the 48 MLAs elected in the recent Delhi polls and the seven Lok Sabha MPs will discuss the name of the new chief minister and a decision will be taken. After the meeting, the name of the legislature party’s leader will be announced, who will meet the lieutenant governor to stake claim to form the government and be the next CM,” the functionary said, on condition of anonymity.
“The CM will take oath shortly afterwards,” he said, adding that the party’s central leadership has made senior leaders Tarun Chugh and Vinod Tawde have been made coordinators for the swearing-in ceremony.
According to the functionary, the BJP will appoint observers — senior politicians who will represent the party’s central leadership — before the legislature party meeting. The observers’ role is to talk to the party’s MLAs and give their feedback to the central leadership before the name of the CM is finalised.
Since February 8 — the day the election results were announced — the names of several legislators have been doing the rounds as a potential chief minister.
They include Parvesh Verma, who defeated AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal from the New Delhi seat, Rekha Gupta (Shalimar Bagh), Vijender Gupta (Rohini), Satish Upadhyay (Malviya Nagar), Ashish Sood (Janakpuri), Pawan Sharma (Uttam Nagar), and Ajay Mahawar (Ghonda), among others.
The BJP functionaries quoted above said the party is planning to hold the new CM’s swearing-in ceremony at Jawaharlal Nehru stadium or Ramlila Maidan, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the CMs of other NDA-ruled states also in attendance. They said that the new CM will likely take oath along with the members of the cabinet.
The party has previously stated that the new cabinet will have representation from the Jat, Dalit, Purvanchali, Sikh, Uttarakhandi, and Baniya communities.
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