New Delhi: Rekha Gupta was on Wednesday named as the new Chief Minister of Delhi. She was unanimously elected by the BJP legislators. Her name was announced by senior BJP leader and MP Ravishankar Prasad.
50-year-old Gupta is a first-time MLA and won from the Shalimar Bagh constituency in the recently held Delhi Assembly elections. She defeated Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominee Bandana Kumari by over 29,000 votes.
Gupta, who is one of the prominent BJP leaders of Delhi, will be the fourth woman Chief Minister of the national capital after late Sushma Swaraj, late Sheila Dikshit and Atishi.
Gupta was born on July 17, 1974, at Julana in Haryana. She is a BCom graduate from Delhi University's Daulat Ram College. She later earned a law degree from Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, and also practised as an advocate.
Gupta, who has had a 32-year association with the RSS, began her political journey with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) at Daulat Ram College in 1992. In 1995-96, she was the secretary of the Delhi University Students' Union and was its president in 1996-97.
In 2002, she joined the BJP and has been the national secretary of the party's youth wing. Gupta has also served as the BJP's women wing in charge in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. She is also the national vice-president of BJP Mahila Morcha.
She was elected as a councillor in 2007 and 2012 from North Pitampura (ward number 54). She was also the BJP's candidate for the mayoral elections in 2022. She was also elected as a councillor of Shalimar Bagh from 2022-25. As the head of the Women Welfare and Child Development Committee of the civic body, she led empowerment campaigns for women.
Gupta's politics has focused on women's welfare, education reform and community development. She has established facilities like swimming pools, gyms, libraries and community halls in her area. She has also started health check-up camps for women and children and conducted awareness campaigns against female foeticide and child labour.
Her father worked in the State Bank of India, and hence her family shifted to Delhi from Haryana. She still visits her native village regularly and is connected to her family.
Gupta belongs to the Vaishya community, which is in considerable numbers in Delhi. The Vaishya community is considered to be the core voter of the BJP. She will be the only woman Chief Minister from the BJP is the entire country.
