Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rekha Gupta has been named as the next Chief Minister of Delhi. Meanwhile, New Delhi MLA Parvesh Verma has been named as the Deputy Chief Minister. And Rohini MLA Vijender Gupta was appointed as speaker of the Delhi Assembly.
The announcement came after the BJP legislature party meeting which was held at the party’s Delhi unit office on Wednesday evening. 50-year-old Gupta, an MLA from Shalimar Bagh constituency, defeated Aam Aadmi Party’s leader Bandana Kumari in the recently held Assembly election.
She had won from Shalimar Bagh, defeating AAP candidate Bandna Kumari by over 29,000 votes in the February 5 assembly election. Apart from Rekha Gupta, Parvesh Verma, who defeated AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal; former Delhi BJP presidents Vijender Gupta and Satish Upadhyay; and other leaders such as Pawan Sharma, Ashish Sood, and Shikha Rai were in the race for the top post in the politics of national capital.
The BJP has come to power after 26 years, defeating the Aam Aadmi Party in the February 5 Delhi Assembly polls. Gupta and her cabinet ministers will take the oath of office at the Ramlila Ground on Thursday. She will be the fourth woman chief minister of Delhi after Sushma Swaraj, Sheila Dikshit and Atishi.
Rekha Gupta, a seasoned BJP leader, has carved a strong political trajectory, starting from Delhi University student politics to holding key positions in the party. A three-time councillor and former mayor of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), Gupta has been an influential figure in Delhi’s civic administration.
Her political acumen was put to the test in 2022 when the BJP fielded her as the party’s mayoral candidate against AAP’s Shelly Oberoi in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections. Despite the outcome, her stature within the party continued to rise. Currently serving as the National Vice President of the BJP Mahila Morcha, she has also held the crucial position of general secretary in the Delhi BJP.
Gupta’s political journey began during her college days at Daulat Ram College, where she made a mark as the President of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) in the 1996-97 session. Her transition into mainstream politics was gradual, and she secured her first electoral victory in 2007 as a councillor from North Pitampura.
