Bihar And West Bengal In Mind: Why Rekha Gupta Was Appointed To Lead Delhi

The BJP leadership selected first time Member of Legislative Assembly, Rekha Gupta, who won from the Shalimar Bagh, as the ninth Chief Minister of Delhi. She will be the fourth woman CM of Delhi after Sushma Swaraj, Sheila Dikshit and Atishi.

The Daily Guardian’s sister concern, the Sunday Guardian had reported on 9 February, a day after the Delhi election results were announced that Gupta was among the top three contenders, alongwith MLAs Pravesh Verma and Ashish Sood, for the post of Chief Minister.

Verma is expected to be appointed as the Deputy CM with Sood also being given a place in the 7 members ministerial cabinet.

Sources told this newspaper that her name was finalised jointly by the BJP and the RSS leadership by 11.30-12 PM on Wednesday, almost 8 hours before her name was officially announced by the two central observers- Ravi Shankar Prasad and OP Dhankar who were given the said responsibility at the end of meeting of party leaders that was held at the residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The selection of Gupta, while might be described as unconventional, but it fits into the style of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when picking Chief Ministers- relatively unknown, relatively inexperienced, non-dynast and someone who observes party’s discipline- as has been the trend in the past.

Gupta, despite losing two successive elections, 2015 and 2020 from Shalimar Bagh, was again repeated by the BJP from the same seat. Gupta, who belongs to the ‘baniya’, Vaishya caste, has been associated with the RSS for a long time.

She began her political career with the RSS’s student organization, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) at Daulat Ram college, 1992. She was the President of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) from 1996 to 1997. Later she served as the Mayor of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) in 2017.

She has in the past been the Secretary and then the national secretary of the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). She was awarded by PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for going through the grinds and rising to become the MLA after serving as a Corporator (Pitampura), the General Secretary of the Delhi BJP Mahila Morcha, and a member of the BJP’s National Executive.

The move to appoint the 50 years old Gupta as the CM, bypassing other top contenders, is also being ascribed to the woman voters, who as per BJP’s analysis, voted in large numbers for the BJP. In the overall election turnout too, the Women voters outvoted men, with a turnout of 60.92% compared to 60.21% among men.

She will be the only second serving woman CM in the country after Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal. Gupta’s credentials as a woman CM of the national capital are expected to bring more woman voters to BJP’s fold during the upcoming elections, including the one slated in Bihar at the end of this year and West Bengal elections that are scheduled for mid next year.

Gupta’s selection adds a powerful asset to the BJP’s future election strategy and campaign—highlighting the party as the one that elected a woman as the CM of the national capital.

The appointment of Gupta should be read in term of BJP’s over all outreach to the woman community, which also includes the appointment of Drapaudi Murmu as the President of the country, fielding two woman in the Lok Sabha polls from Delhi (Kamalajit Shehrawat and Bansuri Swaraj) and the announcement of a 33% reservation for women in politics through the Women’s Reservation Bill, also known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam which aims to reserve one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies for women.

Unlike Pravesh Verma, who was described as the strongest CM claimant due to his family legacy and the fact that he defeated former CM and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal which saw his confidence becoming even louder post the election results, Gupta avoided limelight and did not lobby for position which made an underdog like her- two successive losses, first time MLA- become the CM choice for Modi and Shah. Interestingly, it was Verma who was asked by the party leadership to propose the name of Gupta as the CM in front of the party MLAs at the Delhi BJP head-quarter.