Rekha Gupta named Delhi's next Chief Minister

India Today

The BJP has named Shalimar Bagh MLA Rekha Gupta as Delhi's next Chief Minister. She will take the oath as Chief Minister on Thursday at the Ramlila Ground.

Transcript

00:00Rekha Gupta is a three-time MLA from the Shalimar Barg constituency.

00:05She won in this election by beating Bandana Kumari of the Aam Aadmi Party by 29,595 votes.

00:15She's been councillor from Shalimar Barg as well.

00:18In the last mayor elections, she lost to Shelley O'Brien of the Aam Aadmi Party by just 34

00:25votes, who went on to become then the mayor of Delhi.

00:29So she was born in Jind in Haryana, and she grew up in North Delhi.

00:34She's been in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

00:37She became general secretary.

00:38She's been president of the Delhi University Students' Union between 1996 and 1997.

00:44She joined the BJP in 2002 as a general secretary and was in the party's youth wing.

00:50She will be the first BJP woman chief minister since Vasundhara Raje stepped down, and currently

00:57she will be the only woman chief minister, Raje Singh.

01:00Yes, so the sources are actually right.

01:02See, there are two, three things which went in her favour and tipped the balance towards

01:07her.

01:08Of course, she's a woman face, and BJP desperately needed a woman face, especially because they

01:12have promised so much for the woman voter segment through reservations and all, that

01:17not having a CM face who is a woman just, you know, doesn't... it's not that walk the

01:22talk that BJP ideally wants to see.

01:25That is one.

01:26The other thing is, look at the shrill attacks that BJP's government is going to face from

01:30the Aam Aadmi Party, and in all likelihood, led by Aatish Marlena.

01:34So in order to pit that battle...

01:36Those are visuals from the residence of Rekha Gupta, Delhi's new chief minister, on your

01:42screen.

01:43Now there is firecrackers.

01:44They can call the firecrackers from the residence of some of the other leaders.

01:47They may have stocked up on some firecrackers as well.

01:50But as of now, it's party time.

01:52It's party time for Rekha Gupta.

01:54She's been councillor from Shalimar Barg.

01:58She was the leading female face of the BJP in Delhi and won by a pretty big margin, 29,595

02:07votes.

02:08And the first... and she's got strong RSS connections, strong ABVP connections.

02:13Let me get a quick word in from Prabhu Chawla first.

02:16Prabhuji, Rekha Gupta becoming Delhi's new chief minister, your first takeaway.

02:22You see, interesting thing is, you must see out of the 14 BJP chief ministers, I think

02:2710 of them are from ABVP.

02:29If you look at the background of their ABVP, because I was connected earlier with ABVP.

02:33I know most of the people have been chosen.

02:35Mr. Modi has good connection with ABVP when he was Pacharak in Delhi.

02:39So I would say ABVP, because all the leaders come from the student community.

02:43Class of 70, which will be leaders like Arun Jaitley, etc.

02:48They were the people at that time from ABVP, even Dharamendra Prasad in ABVP, Abhishek

02:52Abhishek from ABVP.

02:53So what I see is that Modi looks after potential candidates of the future, as somebody pointed

02:58out to you.

02:59So Rekha Gupta was a councillor, yeah, I know her very well.

03:02She was a councillor and she lost twice, I think, in L.A.

03:04And she was the only woman face who had experience.

03:07So one is the trading committee.

03:08For a long time, BJP was dependent on the trading committee for the last long time.

03:13But they were losing out on the trading committee.

03:15Punjabis and traders, originally the BJP or Jamsangh would call it.

03:19They were compiling of basically Baniyas and Punjabi refugees from Pakistan.

03:23Now it was the Purvanchal Pradesh who were dominating the narrative for the last two

03:28three years.

03:29And the entire TV channel and everything was talking about the Purvanchal.

03:32So I think it is a good thing they have done it.

03:35They chose a woman who has been a trusted worker of the ABVP and connection with the

03:39RSS.

03:40But as I told you, she will be guided by the Home Minister and she will be Muslim.

03:45BJP Saxena, for example, also belongs, comes from Gujarat.

03:48He belongs to Singhania group.

03:49He was working for them.

03:50He was in Ahmedabad working for an NGO for the last 20 years.

03:54He came back as the Adiyogi commission chairman.

03:57He is very well trusted by both the Prime Minister and Home Minister.

04:00So it will be a combination of Saxena and Gulta who will run the state government.

04:06It is a good choice because one of the workers has become the Chief Minister.

04:09That has been the slogan of the Prime Minister Modi.

04:12I want to go across to the BJP headquarters.

04:14Akshita Nandgopal joins us as the BJP announces a woman Chief Minister for the National Capital.

04:19And about time I say.

04:21Too many men, 13 men and finally a woman joining the gang of Chief Ministers of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

04:33Well, Rahul, I am the only woman here which is why you can see that there isn't much celebration

04:37happening.

04:38Very muted right now because people are still digesting the news.

04:41Rekha Gupta is the Chief Minister of Delhi.

04:44She is going to be sworn in as the Chief Minister.

04:47But of course, first time MLA.

04:49So just with that, a message being sent across that the BJP wanted a woman at their head.

04:54If you look at the list of the Chief Ministers that they have across the country, there isn't

04:58a single woman.

04:59And for a party that speaks about Nadi Shakti, that's not the best image.

05:03But let's also get your reaction.

05:05Pradeep Bhandari here.

05:06Pradeep, good evening.

05:07Rekha Gupta is the Chief Minister.

05:09Why?

05:10Well, your team is inside.

05:11You can go and see there's absolute jubilation inside.

05:14People of Delhi are very, very happy.

05:16Yes, but outside and inside, both people of Delhi are very, very happy.

05:19Why?

05:20Well, people of Delhi are extremely happy they've got the Chief Minister they deserve.

05:23Thank you very much.

05:24So Pradeep Bhandari is saying she's the Chief Minister that the people of Delhi deserve.

05:29We'll continue getting your more reactions from inside.

05:32Rahul, all of the leaders now trickling out with the Legislative Party meet coming to an end.

05:37Next, you'll see Rekha Gupta accompanied by the senior Delhi BJP leadership all headed

05:42to the left-hand governor and officially staking claim to form the government, paving the way,

05:46of course, for that grand oath-taking tomorrow.

05:49Rekha Gupta it is.

05:51And you know how politics turns.

05:54Siddharth Mishra, that is always fascinating.

05:56She lost the mayor election, the Delhi mayor elections to Shelley O'Brien by 34 votes.

06:02From there, she wins this MLA election.

06:05And lo and behold, she's the new Chief Minister.

06:08She's done with the likes of Kiran Bedi, Satish Upadhyay, Manoj Tiwari and several others couldn't.

06:16Rekha Gupta has managed to do that.

06:18You know, luck, being at the right place at the right time has so much to do with political fortune.

06:23There had to be a Chief Minister from either from Vaishya community or from Punjabi community this time.

06:31These two communities have not been voting for BJP in the past elections.

06:34And in this election, out of the 35 seats that they dominate, 29 seats were won by BJP.

06:39So BJP had to give a vote.

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