5 Contenders For BJP’s 4th CM In Delhi? When Top Post Changed Hands 3 Times In 1st Term

Delhi: Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Sunday dissolved the Seventh Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi after Atishi tendered her resignation as the Chief Minister, paving way for the formation of the BJP government after nearly 27 years. 

The party achieved a decisive victory, securing 48 of 70 assembly seats, surpassing the majority threshold. In contrast, AAP, which governed the capital for almost 12 years, won only 22 seats, while the Congress drew third consecutive zero. 

Before AAP stormed to power and Arvind Kejriwal emerged as the ‘giant slayer’, Sheila Dikshit was the biggest political figure of Delhi and the face of three successive Congress regimes from 1998 to 2013 that transformed the national capital with around 70 flyovers, operationalisation and expansion of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) network in addition to a shift of the city’s diesel-propelled public bus fleet en masse to compressed natural gas (CNG).

Before her, three leaders of the BJP ruled the capital.

1st BJP govt in Delhi with 3 CMs

Madan Lal Khurana, dubbed the “Lion of Delhi,” became the first CM after the state assembly was reinstated through the 69th Constitution Amendment Act, 1991. The BJP had then emerged victorious in 49 seats amid the 1984 anti-Sikh violence sentiments against the Congress, which was restrained to 14 seats, with four going to Janata Dal and three to independents.

Khurana, however, had to resign in 1996 after his name came up in the infamous Hawala Scandal. His tenure lasted a total of two years, 86 days, from December 2, 1993 to February 26, 1996.

Sahib Singh Verma succeeded him but was replaced after around 31 months as he received major flak over soaring onion prices and his alleged failure to deal with the water crises in Delhi.

The tenure also saw a turf war between Verma and his predecessor, Khurana, when the latter returned to stake claim to the CM post after being given a clean chit by the courts.

Sushma Swaraj then became Delhi’s first woman CM, but her tenure lasted just 52 days before the elections were again held. Her appointment was seen as a desperate attempt to salvage the deteriorating position of the BJP in the national capital.

The comeback

In 2025 elections, two-time BJP MP Parvesh Verma snatched the title of giant slayer from the AAP chief by defeating him in the New Delhi constituency. And it was Congress’s Sandeep Dikshit, former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s son, who ensured Kejriwal’s defeat and took ‘maa ka badla’ even though he finished third.

Will Parvesh Verma, who did a Kejriwal this election, don the CM’s mantle after his father Sahib Singh Verma’s unfinished term. He is among the five names doing the rounds for the top post.

The other frontrunners are Satish Upadhyay, Malviya Nagar MLA and former Delhi BJP chief; Vijender Gupta, the outgoing Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly; Rekha Gupta, the newly elected MLA from Shalimar Bagh and National Vice President of BJP’s Mahila Morcha; Ashish Sood, the Janakpuri MLA and a key Punjabi face in the party, according to reports.

Amid these speculations, a meeting was held at Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s residence on Sunday, where senior party leaders deliberated on the next steps for government formation.