The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is going to return to power in Delhi after a 27-year gap, as it has emerged victorious in the recently held Assembly elections. The results were declared on Saturday, February 8, 2025. As the BJP is ready to declare its fourth Chief Minister, it is worth recalling the party’s previous three leaders in Delhi.

1. Madan Lal Khurana (Dec 1993 – Feb 1996)

Madan Lal Khurana was the first Chief Minister of Delhi elected on BJP’s tickets after the 69th Constitutional Amendment Act restored the state Legislative Assembly in the year 1991. After the 1993 Assembly elections, in which BJP won 49 seats and the Congress just 14, Khurana came to power. Also famous as “Delhi ka Sher” (Lion of Delhi) for their consolidation efforts within the party, Khurana proved quite popular. However, his term was undermined in 1995 with the emergence of his name in the Hawala scandal that implicated leaders from almost all parties. Amid mounting pressure from the political world, Khurana resigned after less than three years in office.

2. Sahib Singh Verma (Feb 1996 – Oct 1998)

After Khurana’s resignation, Sahib Singh Verma was Delhi’s second BJP CM, on February 27, 1996. His tenure saw infighting with the party leadership, mainly due to Khurana, which further weakened him. He had no control over the economic woes of the state, such as the Rs 60 per kilogram onion that soared during Diwali in 1998 and the frequent power and water crisis in the city. Public anger over these issues forced Verma to resign in 1998, six months before the Assembly elections. His term was less than two years.

3. Sushma Swaraj (Oct – Dec 1998)

Sushma Swaraj became Delhi’s third BJP CM on October 13, 1998. She was the first woman to become the CM of Delhi. The BJP expected her leadership to overcome anti-incumbency. Swaraj’s short stint of just 52 days was on the crisis of onion prices that were destroying the economy of Delhi. Even after constituting a committee to restore the supply of onions and arranging distribution vans, Swaraj could not save the BJP from defeat in the 1998 Assembly elections. The Congress won 52 seats and ruled Delhi for the next 15 years.

Now, after nearly three decades, the BJP looks poised for a fresh chapter in Delhi’s political landscape.