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Journalism of Courage
From sitting on the Opposition benches as the BJP’s leader in the Delhi Assembly for years, three-time Rohini MLA Vijender Gupta, 61, will now occupy the top position in the House as its Speaker.
“They (AAP) used to switch off our mics whenever we used to raise issues pertaining to the national capital, be it issues of roads, sewage, Yamuna cleaning, pollution… They never let us speak, raise important issues and used to marshall us out from the Assembly… Now, the people have given them a strong reply and voted them out of power,” Gupta told The Indian Express.
Gupta, who hails from Delhi, completed his schooling and graduation in the national capital. He began his political career as a student leader in the 1980s at Delhi University. He was also elected as the vice-president of the DU Student Union.
Gupta began his electoral journey in 1997 in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls. He was elected as a councillor from Rohini for three terms. In 2009, he unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Chandini Chowk against Congress leader Kapil Sibal.
In 2013, Gupta contested his first Assembly elections from the prestigious New Delhi seat against then Delhi CM and Congress stalwart Sheila Dikshit and AAP leader and ex-CM Arvind Kejriwal, which was won by Kejriwal.
In 2015, Gupta successfully contested from North West Delhi’s Rohini constituency, going on to win it in 2020 and 2025 too.
In the recent polls, Gupta secured 65% of the vote share, defeating his AAP rival by almost 38,000 votes, the third highest victory margin in this election. He has been credited for developing Rohini into a “modern locality”.
Between 2010 and 2013, Gupta was also the president of the Delhi BJP.
In 2015, Gupta was one of just three BJP MLAs in the Delhi Assembly as the AAP won the elections in a landslide. Serving in his first stint as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly, Gupta had been carried out of the House by marshals after clashing with AAP MLAs over an allegedly derogatory comment made by one of his party colleagues.
Last August, Gupta replaced BJP’s Ramvir Singh Bidhuri as the LoP, his second stint, after the latter was elected to the Lok Sabha.
As the LoP, Gupta played a crucial role in raising several issues including the “Sheesh Mahal” row over Kejriwal’s erstwhile residence as the CM.
After the BJP’s win in Delhi, Gupta said that all 14 pending Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports, including the one on the “Sheesh Mahal” issue, will be presented in the first sitting of the new Assembly.
Following Gupta’s complaint, Delhi’s Directorate of Vigilance last December asked the Public Works Department (PWD) to initiate an enquiry and submit a report regarding the identity of individuals who provided “lavish items” installed in the Kejriwal’s bungalow at 6, Flagstaff Road, “financial transactions or benefits made in exchange of these items”, and the “impact on public funds”. The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) also launched an investigation in the matter, following Gupta’s complaints.
He had also raised the issues of non-implementation of the Ayushman Bharat scheme and its components in Delhi in the previous House, staging protests both inside and outside the Assembly.
According to his election affidavit, Gupta has four pending criminal cases, including one for defamation that was deferred by the Delhi High Court in January owing to the imminent elections. In 2021, a case had been initiated following the AAP’s complaints over Gupta sharing a video on social media and accusing the AAP of hooliganism and violence against women.
