Rekha Gupta is Delhi CM, says will take city to ‘new heights’
A first-time legislator, Rekha Gupta will be administered the oath of office Thursday with six other ministers at the Ramlila Maidan.
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CM-designate Rekha Gupta outside her residence in New Delhi on Wednesday. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)Eleven days after it ousted the AAP to end its 27-year exile from power in the Capital, the BJP Wednesday named 50-year-old Rekha Gupta, the newly-elected MLA from Shalimar Bagh, as Chief Minister of Delhi.
A first-time legislator, Gupta will be administered the oath of office Thursday with six other ministers at the Ramlila Maidan. The composition of the Council of Ministers, sources said, will have “adequate representation” from each of the city’s prominent castes and community groups, including a leading Sikh face.
In first remarks after being named CM, Gupta, who was said to have topped the list of “young and organisationally-experienced leaders in the party” prepared by the BJP brass in consultation with the RSS over the last week, said, “I thank our Central leadership, Prime Minister Modi, all our MLAs for this responsibility.”
She said she was “fully committed to… take Delhi to new heights”.
Accompanied by the party’s central observers Ravi Shankar Prasad and O P Dhankar and others, Gupta met Lt Governor V K Saxena and staked claim to form the government.
मुझ पर विश्वास कर मुख्यमंत्री पद का दायित्व सौंपने के लिए मैं सभी शीर्ष नेतृत्व का हृदय से आभार व्यक्त करती हूं। आपके इस विश्वास और समर्थन ने मुझे नई ऊर्जा और प्रेरणा दी है। मैं संकल्प लेती हूं कि दिल्ली के हर नागरिक के कल्याण, सशक्तिकरण और समग्र विकास के लिए पूरी ईमानदारी,… pic.twitter.com/eYM6X6ptzn
— Rekha Gupta (@gupta_rekha) February 19, 2025
An advocate by profession, Gupta, who will be Delhi’s fourth woman Chief Minister, is an old RSS hand who had joined the Sangh’s student wing, the ABVP, and was elected DUSU president in the 1990s.
She will also be the fourth BJP CM since the creation of the Delhi Legislative Assembly in 1993 – contesting the Assembly elections for the first time, she defeated AAP’s Bandana Kumari from Shalimar Bagh by more than 29,500 votes.
“Not only has she won with a significant margin, factors like her age – she is the third youngest leader to be appointed to the office by the party after Pushkar Singh Dhami (Uttarakhand) and Pema Khandu (Arunachal Pradesh) – the community she comes from, her roots in the ABVP, then the BJP, and the RSS backing, seem to have led to her selection,” a source said.
First-time MLA Rekha Gupta is set to be the fourth woman Chief Minister of Delhi. (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav)
Currently the only woman BJP leader elevated to the office of Chief Minister, she has served in several organisational roles – general secretary of Delhi BJP’s Mahila Morcha, a member of the BJP’s National Executive, and a Councillor.
According to party sources, several other MLAs have been chosen for key roles in the Council of Ministers as well as the Delhi Assembly.
Party sources said frontrunners for the six ministerial berths included Parvesh Verma (New Delhi), Manjinder Singh Sirsa (Rajouri Garden), Ravindra Kumar Indraj (Bawana), Kapil Mishra (Karawal Nagar), Ashish Sood (Janakpuri) and Pankaj Kumar Singh (Vikaspuri).
Apart from these leaders, party insiders said Vijender Gupta (Rohini), who has served two terms as Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, and Mohan Singh Bisht could be chosen for “key responsibilities” in the House.
The new Cabinet will be sworn in at Ramlila Maidan in the presence of the BJP brass including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Cabinet Ministers, Chief Ministers of BJP and NDA-ruled states.
An estimated 50,000 people, sources said, are likely to gather at the Ramlila Maidan on Thursday afternoon.
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