The BJP legislature party on Wednesday elected first-time Shalimar Bagh MLA Rekhka Gupta as the Chief Minister of Delhi, the fourth woman after Sushma Swaraj, Shiela Dikshit and Atishi to lead the government in the Capital city-State.
The election of a first-term MLA as Chief Minister is in keeping with the BJP’s tradition of electing hitherto unknown candidates to the top office as was seen in the case of Bhajan Lal Sharma as CM, Rajasthan, Mohan Yadav as CM, Madhya Pradesh and Vishnu Deo Sai as CM, Chhattisgarh.
“I thank our central leadership, PM Modi, all our MLAs for this responsibility. I will take Delhi to new heights by working on Modi’s vision of development,” Rekha Gupta said after the announcement that she will be the CM. “Hearty congratulations and best wishes to Mrs. Rekha Gupta ji on being elected the leader of the Delhi BJP Legislature Party. We have full faith that the state will progress under your leadership,” read a rough translation of a Hindi post on Delhi BJP’s X handle.
Gupta, who belongs to Baniya community which is a sizeable part of the population in the national capital, defeated AAP’s Bandana Kumari with a margin of 29,595 votes to win from Shalimar Bagh constituency — which has been lucky in the past too for the BJP leaders as Sahib Singh Verma became CM after winning from this seat.
Verma’s son Pravesh Verma, who was also in the race for the CM post, is likely to become Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi. Pravesh defeated former AAP Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal from New Delhi seat.
Gupta was likely to meet Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena at Raj Niwas to stake a claim for forming a BJP-led government in Delhi.
The oath-taking ceremony is scheduled to take place on Thursday at Ramlila Maidan, where AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal was also sworn in as Delhi CM in the past.
Oath-taking ceremony
The oath-taking ceremony is expected to be a grand affair with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and other Union ministers, the BJP president, chief ministers from BJP-ruled States, NDA leaders, RSS functionaries, and other prominent figures slated to join the celebration, party sources said. Over 30,000 guests have been invited to the ceremony, which will also feature a cultural programme.
Gupta has risen in the ranks within the BJP. She was active in student politics in the mid-90s. She became the General Secretary and later President of Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) in 1996–1997.
Before contesting elections to the legislative assembly, she had twice won Delhi councillor elections — the first time in 2007 and re-elected again in 2012 from Uttari Pitampura (Ward 54) itself.
Among the responsibilities handled within the party, include the fact that she was a member of BJP’s national executive and general secretary of Delhi State unit of the party.
