New Delhi, Feb 8: BJP’s Parvesh Verma emerged as a giant-slayer on Saturday with his victory against AAP supremo and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in a fierce contest from the New Delhi seat by a margin of 4,089 votes.
Verma, 47, bagged 30,088 votes, while Kejriwal and Congress’ Sandeep Dikshit got 25,999 votes and 4,568 votes.
Parvesh, a two-time MP from West Delhi, mounted a highly spirited campaign in New Delhi even before the official announcement of his candidature by the BJP.
Two months before the poll, Verma ensured that he reached out to the maximum number of voters in a door-to-door campaign, covering thousands of households in his constituency.
Verma, a son of former Delhi CM Sahib Singh Verma, is among the frontrunners for the next chief minister of Delhi.
The AAP deployed manpower and resources in the constituency expecting a tough contest on the cards and also accused Verma of giving money and other goodies to voters.
The management graduate, known for his vocal, spirited nature, even publicly declared himself as Kejriwal’s rival in the New Delhi seat held by the former Delhi chief minister since 2013.
Verma’s victory was not dissimilar to Kejriwal’s, who in 2013 dethroned three-time CM and Congress candidate Sheila Dikshit.
Born on November 7, 1977 in Delhi, Verma took the political jump in his childhood and joined the RSS as a Bal Swayamsewak in 1991.
He joined the BJP Yuva Morcha later on, becoming its national executive member and then worked as general secretary of Delhi BJP.
In 2013 Assembly polls, he was elected as MLA from Mehrauli seat. He won the Lok Sabha polls as the BJP candidate from West Delhi seat in 2015.
He again contested the West Delhi Lok Sabha seat in 2019 and won by a whopping margin of over 4.78 lakh votes.
Currently, serving as a BJP national executive member, Verma also dabbles in social work through “Rashtriya Swabhiman” non-profit founded by his father.
The initiatives of the organisation include honorarium of Rs 1 lakh each to the kin of Kargil war martyrs, resettlement of two villages earthquake-affected Gujarat, and rehabilitation work in three villages in Odisha hit by cyclone. (PTI)
