WHO IS OM PRAKASH SHARMA

Om Prakash Sharma (O P Sharma), a politician affiliated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Vishwas Nagar constituency of New Delhi. He was one of the only three BJP leaders who defeated Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates in the 2015 Assembly elections. Sharma, who first won the seat in 2013, retained it in 2015, even as the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP swept the election, bagging 67 of the 70 seats.

 

Sharma, who defeated his AAP rival, Dr Atul Gupta, by over 15,000 votes, was the only BJP legislator to retain his seat in 2015.

 

Born in 1964 in a middle-class family, he went to Satyawati College of the Delhi University (DU). He was active in student politics and was elected the president of his college. He also contested in the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections and became an executive member of a team that Arun Jaitley headed as its president. He joined Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). After his father’s demise, he became an inspector in the house tax department.

 

Sharma’s term as an MLA has not been without controversies. In 2016, he was suspended from the Delhi Assembly for two sessions for hurling derogatory remarks at Alka Lamba, then the AAP’s Chandni Chowk legislator and now the Congress party’s candidate from the same seat. The ethics committee of the Delhi Assembly "unanimously" recommended stripping Sharma of his membership for his remarks calling him a "habitual offender". However, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said he should be given one more chance to apologise for his remarks.

 

Sharma had then said: "My intention was not to hurt Lamba, who is like my sister. If she felt offended, I express my regret." After Sharma's comments, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia proposed that the BJP legislator be suspended for two sessions, as he had "not apologised but only expressed regret". The resolution was then passed in the Assembly.

 

In 2017, Sharma got negative press for his alleged role in an attack on mediapersons and the then Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar at New Delhi’s Patiala House court.

 

The next year, he again made headlines for derogatory remarks against AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan. Sharma later clarified: “I called him a terrorist and will do so again. I used it in the context of him creating an atmosphere of terror in the House by shouting down the voice of the Opposition. Is this not a kind of terrorism?”

 

For the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections, the BJP has again placed its bets on Sharma, fielding him from the Vishwas Nagar constituency. He is pitted against Deepak Singla of the AAP and Gurcharan Singh Raju of the Congress.