Delhi Election 2020: Harshvardhan has won every assembly election for BJP since 1993 ⁠— but he is now in the Parliament

• Home Minister Amit Shah on December 5 announced that they will fight the upcoming Delhi Assembly Election without a CM candidate.
  
• In 2015, BJP fielded India’s first women IPS officer Kiran Bedi as their for chief minister in Delhi.
  
• In 2013, when AAP made its surprising debut, BJP fielded Union minister Harshvardhan as their CM Candidate
  

Home Minister Amit Shah on December 5 announced that they will fight the upcoming Delhi Assembly Election without declaring the party’s candidate for Chief Minister. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will come to a decision only after the polls are concluded.

For now, candidates will go for polls under the supervision of the state unit chief, the Bhojpuri superstar, Manoj Tiwari. Unfortunately for the BJP, a certain bet that has paid off for the last 26 years is sitting in Parliament ⁠— Harsh Vardhan.

In 2013, when AAP made its surprising debut, BJP fielded Union minister Harshvardhan as their CM Candidate. It was the same year when BJP emerged as the single-largest party to win 31 out of 70 seats. However, it failed to stake claim and form a government.

A lawmaker since 1993

HarshVardhan, an ENT surgeon by profession, had been winning assembly polls ever since his political debut in assembly polls in 1993. He retained his seat in 1998, 2003, 2008 and was undefeated until 2013— from Krishna Nagar seat each time with a margin of 20,000 votes.

Currently, he is a member of the Parliament and oversees the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Minister of Science and Technology and Minister of Earth Sciences. He defeated Congress leader Jai Prakash in the 2019 Lok Sabha Election for the role.

This is the first instance in Delhi elections in recent years where the BJP hasn’t announced the Chief Minister nominee before elections.

In 2015, in what came as a surprise, BJP fielded India’s first women IPS officer Kiran Bedi as their for chief minister in Delhi replacing Harsh Vardhan. Luckily for the latter, the party faced a terrible defeat. Rival Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by a political newbie Arvind Kejriwal, won 67 out of 70 assembly seats in Delhi.

The early days of Harsha Vardhan
His political journey began in 1977 when he became the president of Delhi University Students Union. Since then, he has been appointed to many roles in the Delhi cabinet.

When he won the assembly polls from the Krishna Nagar seat in East Delhi in 1993, he was appointed as the State Minister of Health where he laid down the foundation of the the pilot project of the Pulse Polio Programme. The project targeted over 1 million children and was later adopted as a national scheme.

See also:
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal⁠— the man with a knack for Carpe Diem
Delhi Election 2020: Gautam Gambhir, MP, cricketer and commentator, will have a lot of say during Delhi’s upcoming assembly elections
Delhi Assembly Election 2020: All you need to know about the upcoming Delhi Assembly Election