BJP Names Rekha Gupta As Delhi’s New Chief Minister

NEW DELHI (ANI)- Rekha Gupta, a first-time MLA from Shalimar Bagh, has been elected as the leader of the BJP legislative party and will take oath as the Chief Minister of Delhi on February 20.

Gupta’s election was announced at a meeting of newly-elected BJP MLAs on February 19 in the presence of central observers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Om Prakash Dhankar. With the BJP securing 48 seats in the recent Assembly polls, the party is set to form a government in Delhi after 27 years, replacing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which won 22 seats.

Gupta, 50, secured victory over AAP’s Bandana Kumari by a margin of over 29,000 votes in the February 5 elections. This win came after two previous unsuccessful attempts in 2015 and 2020 against the same opponent. She will be the fourth woman to hold the Chief Minister’s office in Delhi, following BJP’s Sushma Swaraj, Congress’ Sheila Dikshit, and AAP’s Atishi.

Gupta expressed gratitude for the party leadership’s trust in her, stating in a post: “This trust and support have given me new energy and inspiration. I pledge to work with honesty, integrity, and dedication for the welfare and development of every citizen of Delhi.”

Born on July 19, 1974, in Nandgarh village of Jind district, Haryana, Gupta moved to Delhi with her family in 1976. She entered politics as a student at Delhi University, where she was actively involved with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Gupta’s association with the BJP began in the early 2000s, when she joined the party’s youth wing.

Her husband Manish Gupta and mother-in-law both spoke to the media expressing their happiness on the appointment.