Eleven days after it won the assembly polls in Delhi, the BJP yesterday finally announced the name of its new chief minister.
Rekha Gupta, 50, is a first-time MLA who won from Shalimar Bagh this election, beating AAP’s Bandana Kumari by over 29,000 votes. She met Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena last night to officially stake her claim to form the government. The swearing-in took take place today at Ramlila Maidan.
Gupta is the only woman head of government in states and UTs governed by the BJP. She was chosen as the CM face after 48 MLAs unanimously elected her as the leader of the Delhi BJP Legislature Party at the party headquarters. She’ll also be the fourth woman CM in Delhi after Sushma Swaraj, Sheila Dikshit and Atishi.
Gupta started her career with student politics in 1992 when she joined the BJP’s student wing Akhil Bharatiya Janata Party.
Newspapers devoted their front pages to Gupta’s journey in politics and why the BJP chose her over other senior leaders.
The Hindu’s report on page one described Gupta as a “surprise choice”.
“She beat a number of probable candidates, including Parvesh Sahib Singh who had defeated Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal in the New Delhi constituency, three-term MLA and former Leader of the Opposition Vijender Gupta, and former BJP president Satish Upadhyay,” the report said. A longer story on page 13 detailed Gupta’s “30-year career in politics”, starting off as a “grassroots leader with an RSS-ABVP background”. “It is a matter of pride for every woman in the country,” the story quoted her as saying.
The Times of India chose the headline “EuRekha!” for its main story on page 1. A box titled “What worked for her?” said Gupta “is a woman, belongs to Bania community, which played a key role in BJP’s win and has risen from the grassroots”. The report also said Gupta’s selection “is in keeping with recent trend of BJP going for relatively low-profile netas for CMs as seen in other states too”.
The Indian Express in Delhi said Gupta “was said to have topped the list of ‘young and organisationally-experienced leaders in the party’ prepared by the BJP brass in consultation with the RSS over the last week”.
The report quoted Gupta’s mother-in-law Meera Gupta as saying: “Whatever the Aam Aadmi Party couldn’t do, she will do. She is a good daughter-in-law and will prove to be a good CM, too.”
Hindustan Times described Gupta as a “first-time lawmaker from Shalimar Bagh in west Delhi who rose through the ranks from a student leader to a three-time councillor”.
“Gupta’s name appeared to be a nod towards the key demographic of women’s vote that moved significantly away from the AAP in the 2025 polls. It also helped represent the middle-class, another crucial vote base that ensured the BJP end its 27-year-long wait for power in the Capital. When she takes charge, Gupta will become only the second sitting woman chief minister, apart from West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee,” the report said.
In The Telegraph in Kolkata, the top story on page one was about a car crash in the city that eventually led to the discovery of three dead women in the passengers’ home. Gupta made it to a single column on the page that said the choice of Gupta “reflected a replay of what happened in bigger states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in 2023, where low-profile leaders were elected by sidelining stalwarts”.
The story, which continued on page four, said: “Party leaders said the BJP needed a woman to head a state at a time when the ‘mahila’ vote bank was being touted as a big game changer and Modi had been claiming credit for the passage of the women’s reservation bill in Parliament.”
And in Chennai, The New Indian Express’s headline on page one said “BJP crosses gender Rekha for CM choice”.
The report said that in a “loaded prediction”, a senior BJP leader on Monday had told the newspaper that the PM “has to draw a new line of development in Delhi”. (In Hindi, “Delhi me vikas ka ek naya ‘rekha’ kichna hai prime minister sahib ko.”)
“The wordplay barely concealed the name of the eventual pick as chief minister-designate Rekha Gupta. How sure was he about it? The senior leader was emphatic: ‘Go, write it on a 100 rupee note.’”
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