Who will be the new Delhi chief minister? Will the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pick a woman as the next Delhi CM? Names of several BJP leaders have emerged as the race for the top post continues. Many also speculate if the new chief minister will be a fresh face, surprising political observers.
In the past, the BJP has chosen new and lesser-known figures — with relatively low public profile — for the chief minister’s post.
For example, the BJP picked Mohan Yadav in Madhya Pradesh, Bhajanlal Sharma in Rajasthan, Vishnu Deo Sai in Chhattisgarh, Pushkar Singh Dhami in Uttarakhand and Mohan Charan Majhi in Odisha.
This raises the question: Will the BJP choose a new face in Delhi too? “You never know… The national leadership can come up with an altogether fresh face who fits the bill and is capable of discharging the duties as Delhi chief minister amid high expectations of the people,” a BJP leader told news agency PTI.
The BJP leader said the party could consider an MLA with ‘Purvanchal’ background, a Sikh, or a woman, depending on the political calculations guiding its top brass. “Past experience, including in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in 2023, and Odisha last year, leave little room for speculation on such matters,” he was quoted as saying.
Amid such speculations, names of six women BJP leaders have emerged for the Delhi CM post. They are:
1. Shikha Roy: She defeated AAP veteran leader Saurabh Bhardwaj in the Greater Kailash assembly constituency in the Delhi Elections 2025.
2. Rekha Gupta: She won the Shalimar Bagh assembly seat in Delhi in the 2025 assembly polls. She defeated AAP’s Bandana Kumari by a margin of 29,595 votes.
3. Smriti Irani: She is a former Union minister in the Modi cabinet. She lost the Lok Sabha Election 2024 from the Amethi seat in Uttar Pradesh.
4. Bansuri Swaraj: The daughter of former Union minister Sushma Swaraj, Bansuri won the Lok Sabha 2024 polls from the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat.
5. Poonam Sharma: She won the Wazirpur assembly seat in Delhi. She defeated AAP’s Rajesh Gupta by 11,425 votes.
6. Neelam Pahelwan: She won the Delhi Election 2025 from the Najafgarh assembly constituency. She defeated AAP’s Tarun Kumar by 29,009 votes.
Delhi’s three women CMs
Delhi has had three women chief ministers in the past: BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, Congress’ Sheila Dikshit and AAP’s Atishi. If the BJP chooses a woman chief minister this time, she will become the fourth woman to take the reins in the national capital.
Other Delhi CM candidates
Visible faces such as Parvesh Verma, a leader from the Jat community who defeated AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, and seasoned organisational leaders like Satish Upadhyay, Vijender Gupta, Ashish Sood, Manjinder Singh Sirsa and Pawan Sharma are being talked about as the race for the Delhi CM heats up.
Names of BJP leader Ramesh Bidhuri and BJP MP Manoj Tiwari have also emerged in the political spheres.
