JP Nadda meets Amit Shah as BJP gets down to picking new Delhi CM

BJP president JP Nadda met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday as the party's exercise to pick the new Delhi chief minister gathered pace, a day after it won the assembly polls and ended a more than 26-year spell out of power. Senior leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had held consultations at the BJP headquarters on Saturday as well after Modi delivered a victory speech to jubilant party workers.

With the BJP making impressive gains in every region and among most communities in the polls, it has been left with a wide pool of potential chief ministerial candidates.

With larger political messaging often guiding the party's choices in choosing its chief ministers in different states, political watchers believe that Delhi would be no exception.


While visible faces such as Parvesh Verma, a leader from the Jat community who defeated AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, and seasoned organisational leaders like Satish Upadhyay, Vijender Gupta, Ashish Sood and Pawan Sharma are being talked about, the BJP has a history of elevating leaders with a relatively low public profile.

A BJP leader said the party could also consider an MLA with 'Purvanchal' background, a Sikh, or a woman, depending on the political calculations guiding its top brass.

Past experience, including in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in 2023, and Odisha last year, leave little room for speculation on such matters, he added.

The BJP picked Mohan Yadav in Madhya Pradesh, Bhajanlal Sharma in Rajasthan and Mohan Charan Majhi in Odisha, taking most political observers by surprise.

"You never know... The national leadership can come up with an altogether fresh face who fits the bill and is capable of discharging the duties as Delhi chief minister amid high expectations of the people," the BJP leader said.

The BJP's Delhi unit president Virendra Sachdeva said the decision on the chief minister would be taken by the party's central leadership, adding that all newly-elected MLAs were capable of discharging the duties assigned to them.