Rekha Gupta, a former president of the Delhi University Students’ Union on Thursday took oath as the fourth woman chief minister of Delhi, ending a almost two week nail-biting suspense.
BJP’s Sushma Swaraj, Congress’s Sheila Dikshit, and Aam Aadmi Party’s Atishi had been chief ministers of the national capital before Gupta.
The 50-year-old, who is a first-time MLA from Shalimar Bagh, defeated AAP candidate Bandna Kumari by over 29,000 votes on February 8. Notably, Gupta contested the Shalimar Bagh seat in both the 2015 and 2020 Delhi elections but was defeated by AAP’s Bandana Kumari in both years.
“I express my heartfelt gratitude to all the top leadership for trusting me and entrusting me with the responsibility of the post of Chief Minister. This trust and support of yours has given me new energy and inspiration. I pledge that I will work with full honesty, integrity and dedication for the welfare, empowerment and overall development of every citizen of Delhi. I am fully committed to this important opportunity to take Delhi to new heights,” Gupta wrote in Hindi on X, shortly after the party made the announcement on Wednesday evening.
Born in Haryana’s Jind district in 1974, Rekha Gupta’s father served as the former bank officer in SBI.
In 1992 she joined ABVP and her political activities during her student years bagged her chair of Secretary of Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU). Later she became the president of DUSU. She was very fond of RSS during her early years of life which led her to join BJP in 2002.
She also served as the Secretary of Dyal Singh College and was deeply engaged in student activism, which propelled her further into public life.
She has served as national secretary of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha between 2002 and 2005.
Gupta was elected as a councillor in the MCD elections in 2007 from North Pitampura. She went on to serve as chairperson of the women welfare and child development committee during 2007 and 2008.
She has also served in several key positions including chairperson of the education committee in NDMC, National General Secretary, Mahila Morcha.
In her affidavit submitted to the election commission, she has mentioned that she has done LLB from Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut in 2022 and B.Com from Daulat Ram College, Delhi University in 1992.
BJP has won 48 seats and Aam Aadmi Party has won 22 seats in the recent Delhi Legislative Assembly polls, which has led the BJP to come back into power in the national capital after 27 years.
