NEW DELHI: Two days before the legislative party meeting of the BJP, frontrunner for Delhi chief ministerโs post and New Delhi MLA Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma has rushed to hold a closed-door meeting with the top brass of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).
Vermaโs series of meetings took place at the newly-inaugurated RSS office at Keshav Kunj near Jhandewalan Mandir on the Pahar Ganj-Karol Bagh road in Delhi.
Among his all meetings, itโs his meet with RSS national body executive member Suresh Soni, that is being seen as the hallmark of his build-up to emerge as the front-runner even as the 48 MLAs would sit together only on Wednesday to unanimously elect the chief ministerial face of the BJP.
Soni had played an instrumental role in handpicking Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Lal Yadav in December 2023.
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BJP over the last 10 years has been tightlipped on announcing the CM face before the legislative party meet to rule out the scope of lobbying as well as fissures while also decentralising the power only to the top echelons.
Sources in the RSS also said that RSS joint secretary Arun Kumar also gave audience to Verma on the 8th floor office of Keshav Kunj during the past 72 hours.
Many in RSS say that the outfitโs north India in-charge Jatin Kumar, who was brought in by the Sangh in August 2024 to give a leg-up to the BJPโs electioneering, is fond of Verma but has been non-committal on handing over the Delhi leadership reins to the Jat leader due to his inflexibility to take other colleagues along.
His meetings are seen as a late booster by him to secure RSS trust after the 47-year-old defeated the three-time CM and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal , albeit by a wafer-thin margin of 4,089 votes.
4,568 votes secured by their common adversary and Congress candidate Sandeep Dikshit is still being touted as one of the key reasons that helped Verma secure his victory apart from the hectic campaign by his party colleague and New Delhi MP Bansuri Swaraj.
Verma, who was one of the richest candidates with Rs 95 crore assets in the Delhi polls, holds a significant sway due to his caste Jat that could be around 9-10 % in Delhi but has presence in about 6 west Delhi seats in the 70-member assembly constituency.
Kumar, himself, had brainstormed closely with BJP leadership on leading more than 60,000 meetings on the 70 seats, particularly around JJ clusters and slums.
While preparations are underway for Delhi CMโs swearing-in at Ramlila Maidan, many legislators believe that there is a scope for a deputy CM even from the first-timers like Ashish Sood (a Punjabi face & Janak Puri MLA), Manjinder Sirsa (a Sikh face from Rajouri Garden), Kapil Mishra (a firebrand Hindutva face from Karawal Nagar), Satish Upadhyay (former BJP Delhi president and MLA from Malviya Nagar and Rekha Gupta (Shalimar Bagh MLA) apart from giant killers like Talwinder Marwah, who defeated Manish Sisodia in Jangpura, Harish Khurana who defeated powerful MLA Shiv Charan Goel.
Verma, an alumnus of the prestigious DPS school and Fore School of Management, had earlier served the Parliament but had missed out on 2024 Lok Sabha candidature.
His father Sahib Singh Verma had served Delhi as its chief minister between 1996-1998 before being inducted as the Labour minister in the Vajpayee government in 2000-2004 tenure.
