NEW DELHI: Drawing a close to the suspense over naming of the next chief minister of Delhi, Shalimar Bagh MLA Rekha Gupta emerged as Leader of the House after BJP Legislature Party meeting on Wednesday evening. Gupta will be serving as ninth Chief Minister of Delhi from Thursday after she is sworn into Office at Ramlila Maidan today. She is set to become the fourth woman to hold the Office of Chief Minister of Delhi.
Former DUSU president and first-time MLA Rekha Gupta, who has had a long association with the RSS, has worked extensively for women’s welfare.
After facing defeat in the past two editions of Delhi assembly polls from the same seat, Rekha Gupta won from the Shalimar Bagh seat with a margin of 29,595 votes by defeating AAP’s Bandana Kumari.
Gupta has previously served as general secretary and president of the Delhi University Student Union (DUSU). As a BJP leader, Gupta is also member of its national executive committee and general secretary of Delhi state unit. Gupta is also the national vice-president of BJP Mahila Morcha.
Born in Haryana’s Julana, Gupta is a BCom graduate from DU’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. She came into politics with the DU students’ union elections, when she was elected DUSU president in 1996–1997.
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. In 2006, she was appointed national secretary of the BJP Yuva Morcha.
She was elected councillor thrice – 2007-2012, 2012-17 and 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.
She was BJP’s mayoral candidate against AAP’s Shelly Oberoi in 2022 in the MCD and was defeated by her rival.
In her social life, Gupta spearheaded the “Sumedha Yojana” to help economically weaker girl students to pursue their higher studies.
As head of the Women Welfare and Child Development Committee, she worked on initiatives for women’s empowerment. In these capacities, she has been involved in various initiatives aimed at supporting marginalised communities and women in particular.