Verma represented the West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency from 2014 till 2019 and also won from Mehrauli in the 2013 assembly elections. His father Sahib Singh Verma served as the chief minister of Delhi between 1996 and 1998.
According to sources, a section of the party has asked the central leadership to announce the first list of candidates for the 2025 Delhi Assembly elections by the end of the month.
A central BJP leader told ThePrint that the national leadership is also keen to field a number of senior leaders, including former MPs Meenakashi Lekhi, Ramesh Bidhuri, and Arvinder Singh Lovely, as well as Delhi BJP president Virender Sachdeva, among others.
“A few seats being represented by senior AAP leaders have been identified including that of Kejriwal, current CM Atishi, Saurabh Bhardwaj, and Manish Sisodia, among others, wherein BJP will field former MPs and senior party leaders to give a tough fight to them and to ensure they remain restricted to their constituencies,” said the BJP leader.
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Verma holding meetings in preparation
According to sources in the party, Verma has already started preparing to contest from the New Delhi seat and has held meetings with voters from the New Delhi constituency as well as workers to chalk out a plan for campaigning.
“He has already held 7-8 such programmes in the last few days and will be doing more such programmes in the coming few days,” said a party source.
Verma has held meetings with Valmiki community leaders, who account for a sizeable number in the constituency, the source added.
Sources in the national BJP said Verma is keen to contest against Kejriwal and the central leadership will take a final decision in this regard soon.
“Verma is someone who won his seat with one of the highest margins and also has the legacy of his father Sahib Singh Verma. He is also a firebrand Hindutva leader and knows how to manage an election,” said the Delhi BJP leader quoted earlier.
ThePrint reached out to Verma via calls and messages but he was not available for comment.
Recently, BJP entrusted Verma with the responsibility to overseeing Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency for the Delhi BJP manifesto. Despite winning with one of the highest margins in Lok Sabha elections, Verma was denied a ticket for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections but was later made the co-incharge for the Rajasthan Lok Sabha elections.
Anti-incumbency against AAP
Delhi BJP has been holding a number of programmes and demonstrations to target the AAP government in national capital.
“We have been out of power since 1998 and won’t get a better opportunity than this. There is huge anti-incumbency against AAP in Delhi just like it was during [Congress leader] Sheila Dikshit’s time. We will be coming up with a number of schemes to counter the AAP in the coming few days,” the Delhi BJP leader quoted earlier added.
The BJP has had a successful run at the parliamentary level in Delhi, wresting all of the capital’s seven seats in 2014, 2019 and 2024. However, assembly results have been disappointing with the party currently accounting for just eight of the city’s 70 MLAs. The AAP won 62 seats in the last elections held in February 2020.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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