Delhi 4th Woman CM Rekha Gupta: The Sanghi Who Persevered

New Delhi: As Rekha Gupta stepped out of the Marghat Wale Hanuman Mandir in Delhi on Thursday, someone among the crowd that had gathered noted: “It is her perseverance that has finally paid off.”

A beaming Rekha set off for the Ramlila Maidan to take oath as Delhi’s 9th Chief Minister and the fourth woman to do so.

The unidentified man in the crowd had been correct in his assessment. At a time when people switch political allegiance at the drop of a hat, Rekha had stuck with the Bharatiya Janata Party through thick and thin, gradually reducing her losing margin before emerging a clear winner from the Shalimar Bagh Assembly constituency.

According to a senior BJP leader in Delhi, it is her connect with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS that made all the difference. “A true Sanghi never gives up, you know. They are unlike fence sitters who switch sides according to their own convenience,” he said.

Originally from Jind in Haryana, Rekha was not even 20 when she joined the RSS affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) at Delhi’s Daulat Ram College in 1993. She went on to become the general secretary and then the president of the Delhi University Students’ Union before formally joining the BJP in 2002.

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Her political grooming would last for the next five years, during which she held the position of secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s Delhi unit before taking charge as the organisation’s national secretary. She also served as the national vice-chairperson of the BJP Mahila Morcha and a member of the party’s national executive.

She first contested the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections in 2007 and won the North Pitampura ward. She retained the seat five years later and served as vice-chairperson of the MCD’s standing committee.

“The party was watching her closely and decided to field her as a candidate from Shalimar Bagh in 2015. This was when the BJP was going through a tough phase in Delhi, with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) wave sweeping across the national capital. We were surprised. We knew that Shalimar Bagh would be a tough ask as the AAP had won it convincingly in 2013,” a BJP national executive member said.

Rekha lost the seat to sitting AAP MLA Bandana Kumari by 10,978 votes. In 2020, she contested the seat once again and lost. However, it was a closely fought battle and she succeeded in bringing down the margin to 3,440 votes. Rekha finally triumphed in the recent election winning the seat by a margin of 68,200 votes.

Rekha is the sole politician in her family. Her father was a bank officer and her husband is a businessman. The 50-year-old has two children, who are students.

Ahead of the oath-taking ceremony, Congress leader Alka Lamba extended her wishes to the new CM through a nostalgic post, tracing her journey in student politics. “This memorable photo from 1995 – when I and Rekha Gupta took the oath together. I won the position of President of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) from NSUI and Rekha won the position of General Secretary from ABVP – Congratulations and best wishes to Rekha Gupta,” she wrote.