Parvesh Sahib Singh: Hero Extraordinary

IN THE SUMMER of 2024, Parvesh Sahib Singh, a two-time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from West Delhi, was denied a ticket to fight the Lok Sabha elections, and told that he would have to focus on the Delhi Assembly polls. Singh decided to take the tiger by its tail. He approached Union Home Minister Amit Shah and requested him to give him a ticket to contest from what was seen as the most challenging seat—New Delhi—from where former chief minister and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal had won thrice consecutively since 2013 and was again fighting. Singh, according to one of his close aides, told Shah that all he wanted was his blessings to take on Kejriwal. When Shah asked him if he could win, Singh said he was confident.

By winter, as Delhi went into election mode, Singh hit the campaign trail wearing sneakers and vermilion, going door to door, interacting with voters, promising better civic amenities and castigating Kejriwal. He would sit on the floor surrounded by voters, making a plea that those who have got clean water or free electricity over 11 years of AAP rule may vote for Kejriwal but if not, they should back him. In rallies, walking along with his supporters or standing atop a vehicle, he accused Kejriwal of spreading lies, corruption, building a “Sheesh Mahal” and fail­ing to keep promises to people. He targeted AAP on handling of the city’s infrastructure, the state of the Yamuna river, pollution and women’s safety. Describing himself as the “son of Delhi”, he assured women that BJP will deliver on the promise of `2,500 a month to poor women through direct benefit transfer, while ac­cusing AAP of failing to keep its promise of giving women `2,100 a month under its Mahila Samman Yojana. A Delhi-born Jat, who had his turf in West Delhi, where there is a significant popula­tion belonging to his community, Singh was treading into the political terrain of the prestigious New Delhi constituency for the first time. Besides his own kin and team, a group of around 15 BJP leaders from Gujarat had landed in Delhi to help him win the three-way New Delhi contest. The party worked on booth man­agement, a strategy BJP has mastered, targeting winnable booths. A member of his team says Shah’s open assertion at the peak of elections that Kejriwal will lose his seat infused more confidence and added muscle to Singh’s campaign. At an election rally, Shah had said Singh’s victory would ensure AAP’s defeat.

Focusing on taking on his formidable foe, Singh desisted from reiterating contentious statements like those that made the headlines in 2022, when he called for a boycott of Mus­lims. But controversy tailed him, this time over allegations by the Opposition of distributing shoes and money, violating the model code of conduct—all of which he denied. He won by a margin of 4,089 votes, defeating Kejriwal. Interestingly, for Singh, the son of former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma, Congress’ Sandeep Dikshit, the son of three-time Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, also contesting from New Delhi, was third in the race securing 4,568 votes. Singh is the first BJP can­didate to win the prestigious New Delhi constituency after delimitation in 2008, prior to which it was called Gole Market, a constituency which Sheila Dikshit had in 1998 wrested from Kirti Azad, who was then in BJP. Dikshit held the seat for three con­secutive terms, till Kejriwal won it in 2013. Having earned the tag of a giant slayer, Singh is being seen as one of the names on the long list of probable chief ministers of Delhi, where BJP has returned to power after 27 years. Speculation, however, is rife that the BJP leadership is likely to keep in mind various social and political factors while deciding on a name, like it did, throwing surprises, in choosing chief ministers in states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

When BJP last came to power in Delhi in 1993, Singh was 15, studying in Delhi Public School and playing football. It was also the first time that the party had won elections to the Delhi Assem­bly. A day after his victory from the New Delhi seat, he said it re­minded him of 1993. BJP had won 49 of the 70 seats then—one more than the 48 this time—in a direct face-off with Congress. At that time Madan Lal Khurana was made chief minister, but three years later, he had to step down, and Singh’s father Sahib Singh Verma was giv­en charge. Singh said this time too, BJP has won most of the outer Delhi seats, where his father had once held sway, and resolved to complete his unfinished works. It was after Verma died in a car accident in 2007 that Singh got interested in joining electoral politics. After school, Singh com­pleted his graduation from Delhi University’s Kirori Mal College and later did an MBA from the FORE School of Management.

Singh was keen on contesting from West Delhi in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, but the party gave the ticket to Jagdish Mukhi, an MLA from Janakpuri, who eventually lost to Congress’ Mahabal Mishra. In 2013, Singh was given a ticket to fight from the Mehrauli Assembly seat, which he won defeat­ing AAP’s Narinder Singh Sejwal, despite dissent from within the party. In the following year’s Lok Sabha elections, when Narendra Modi was the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for the first time, Singh fought from the West Delhi seat, winning by a record margin of votes in Delhi, which he himself broke in 2019, defeating Mishra. He has often courted controversy in the past. In the run-up to the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections, he called Kejriwal a “terrorist” for allegedly standing with the Shaheen Bagh protestors, after which the poll panel imposed a 24-hour campaigning ban on him. Singh told protestors gathered at Sha­heen Bagh that if BJP came to power, they would be cleared in an hour. In the Delhi campaign, however, he stuck to the develop­ment and social welfare scripts, promises on which he requested voters to give him a chance. New Delhi did.

AAPArvind KejriwalAssembly Elections 2025BJP leaderDelhi Assembly Election 2025Narendra ModiParvesh Sahib Singh