New Delhi: The new Delhi Chief Minister is all set to be decided on Monday (February 17). Sources said that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s legislative party meeting is likely to take place on Monday at 3 pm. All the 48 newly elected BJP MLAs will attend the meeting at Delhi BJP office and are set to select their leader, who will then take oath as the new Chief Minister of the capital.
BJP spokesperson Ajay Alok on Friday had reportedly said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is returning (from his foreign visit) by tonight. There will be a meeting of our parliamentary board tomorrow or the day after. Delhi’s new CM will be before you.”
Securing a resounding victory, the BJP had bagged 48 out of 70 seats in the recently concluded Delhi assembly elections. The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) faced a humiliating defeat and was unseated.
The AAP, which had governed Delhi for more than a decade, could manage just 22 seats in the keenly contested polls, the results of which were declared on February 8. Adding insult to injury, several AAP leaders, including former CM Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, lost in their seats. Outgoing Chief Minister Atishi was able to retain her seat. The Congress failed to open its account for the third straight time.
Appointment of observers
The BJP is all set to appoint observers to hold talks with the newly elected party MLAs as part of the process to finalise the new Chief Minister of Delhi, sources said. The observers will represent the central leadership and facilitate communication between them and the 48 MLAs.
On Saturday, amid the suspense over new Delhi CM, BJP national president and Union minister JP Nadda chaired the BJP national general secretary meeting at the BJP headquarters in Delhi.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva on Saturday had reportedly said: “BJP has a democratic process for the selection of the chief minister. The central leadership will send observers; the observers will talk to the newly elected MLAs, and then they will convey their feedback to the central leadership. Then the decision on who will be the chief minister will be taken.”
The frontrunners for the CM’s post reportedly are Parvesh Verma, the BJP’s Jat face in Delhi who defeated Kejriwal from the New Delhi seat, and former Delhi BJP presidents Vijender Gupta and Satish Upadhyay.
