Amid suspense over the new Chief Minister of Delhi, the BJP top brass will convene a meeting on Sunday. The high command will select two observers, either MPs or senior leaders, who will hold talks with the new MLAs to select the new chief minister.
Though initial rounds of discussions were held earlier, the announcement was delayed as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to return to Delhi from the US.
The observers are expected to hold talks with all 48 MLAs to analyse the ground-level situation before zeroing in on the name. Reports are that they will choose the Chief Ministers and six other ministers for Delhi. However, speculations are rife that no one will be given the responsibility of Deputy chief minister, despite the BJP's practice of choosing two people for the post in other states.
Meanwhile, there are unconfirmed reports that New Delhi MLA Parvesh Verma could be sidelined in favour of other leaders. Verma was considered the frontrunner for the post, considering his clout within the party and his electoral performance against Arvind Kejriwal. At this point, Verma faces tough challenges from Rekha Gupta, Vijendra Gupta, Virendra Sachdeva and Satish Upadhyay.
Among these names, only Sachdeva is not an MLA. Rekha Gupta's name is strongly doing rounds at this point as she has been a Mayor and a strong name within the party circles despite becoming MLA for the first time. The BJP might also choose a woman for the post as it doesn't have a woman CM in any state.
The BJP's practice of picking unpopular MLAs for the post, like it did in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, has also cast a shadow of gloom among Verma supporters. In such a scenario, Uttam Nagar MLA Pawan Sharma is a probable name. Another criterion for the party is how well the person can work in coordination with the Lieutenant Governor and speed up the development of Delhi.
The swearing-in ceremony of the BJP government in Delhi is likely to take place on February 19 or 20. The BJP legislature party meeting will be held around February 18-19.