Delhi’s Chief Ministerial Face Bind

As Delhi goes into elections on February 5, the three main political parties in fray have left voters in a quandary over their chief ministerial faces. While BJP and Congress have decided against projecting a candidate for the post, the incumbent AAP is not projecting Chief Minister Atishi as its candidate. Her predecessor Arvind Kejriwal, AAP’s candidate, is bound by bail conditions that he cannot enter the office of chief minister or sign official files in that capacity.

While AAP says anyone who can contest elections is eligible to become the chief minister, BJP has rejected this claim saying the case is still going on.

BJP, which has been out of power in Delhi for 27 years, is campaigning under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a tactic tested in several states. The party, hoping to cash in on the 10 years of “anti-incumbency” of the AAP government, is banking on the policies of the Central government. In 2015, when BJP projected former IPS officer Kiran Bedi, it lost to AAP, winning just three seats. The party’s last chief minister was Sushma Swaraj in 1998, after which BJP lost thrice to Congress, which had a formidable face in Shiela Dikshit, and thrice to AAP, led by Kejriwal. Despite its six electoral defeats, BJP managed to retain its electoral vote share at around 30 per cent. It has also won all Lok Sabha seats in the capital since 2014, when Modi became prime minister.

This time, two Lok Sabha MPs— Parvesh Verma and Ramesh Bidhuri— dropped from the list in the General Election—are in the fray for the Delhi Assembly polls. Though several faces have cropped up, including former Union ministers Meenakshi Lekhi and Smriti Irani, with a section within BJP apparently in favour of a woman chief minister, the party leadership has not zeroed in on any name. Anyone who has watched the strategy of the BJP brass even fleetingly would know that it will defy what is anticipated. When it comes to selecting a chief ministerial face, any name that does the rounds has generally been ticked off the list of aspirants.

Meanwhile, AAP leaders—Kejriwal and Atishi—had claimed earlier this month that BJP would announce Bidhuri, as its chief ministerial face. As for AAP, Atishi had herself given clear indications, while taking charge in September, that Kejriwal was chief minister. “This is the Delhi chief minister’s chair, it is Arvind Kejriwal’s,” she had said. Atishi is fighting from the Kalkaji seat, where BJP has fielded Bidhuri, who had won three consecutive Assembly polls from 2003 to 2013 from Tughlaqabad, and Congress has fielded Alka Lamba, who had returned to the party in 2019, after quitting AAP, which she joined in 2014.

Shiela Dikshit’s son and Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit is taking on Kejriwal and Verma in the New Delhi constituency. The Congress’ vote share has been steadily falling after 2013.

AAPArvind KejriwalBJPCongressDelhi Assembly Election 2025Parvesh VermaRamesh BidhuriSandeep DikshitWeb Exclusive