Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal is headed for a defeat from the New Delhi constituency against BJP’s Parvesh Verma. Verma is currently leading by 1,800 votes with just two rounds of vote counting remaining, according to the Election Commission website.

Kejriwal’s vote tally stood at 20,190 and Verma had 22,034 votes after 11 rounds of counting.

The trends showed the BJP was leading in 45 of Delhi’s 70 assembly seats.

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The BJP has been out of office in Delhi since 1998. On the other hand, AAP has dominated Delhi’s political landscape for the past 10 years, winning the 2015 and the 2020 polls by whopping majorities.

The Congress, which governed Delhi from 1998 to 2013 and was hoping for a resurgence, seemed headed for its third straight washout.

Delhi, with 1.55 crore eligible voters, recorded a turnout of 60.54 per cent in the February 5 elections.

Who is Parvesh Verma?

Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, born on November 7, 1977, comes from a prominent political background. His educational journey began at Delhi Public School in RK Puram, followed by Delhi University’s Kirori Mal College. He also holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Fore School of Management.

As the son of former Delhi Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Sahib Singh Verma, Parvesh is part of a highly influential political family in the national capital. His uncle, Azad Singh, served as the mayor of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation and contested the Mundka Vidhan Sabha constituency on the BJP ticket in the 2013 assembly elections.

Verma himself was first elected to the Delhi assembly in 2013. He contested from the Mehrauli constituency then and defeated his Congress rival Yoganand Shastri, the incumbent Delhi Vidhan Sabha speaker at the time.

He won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections to become an MP from the West Delhi constituency, which he retained in 2019. Verma did not contest the 2024 elections and is in the fray in the assembly polls.

As a member of Parliament, he has served as a member of the Joint Committee on Salaries and Allowances of Members of Parliament and a member of the Standing Committee on Urban Development.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Verma defeated his Congress rival Mahabal Mishra by a margin of 578,486 votes. Verma not only broke his own record but also set a record as the candidate with the highest victory margin in Delhi.

Known for his controversial remarks, Verma was banned for 24 hours by the Election Commission during the 2020 assembly election campaign after calling Arvind Kejriwal a “terrorist.”