NEW DELHI:The BJP’s choice of Rekha Gupta, a city councillor turned first-time MLA, as the Delhi Chief Minister should not be a surprise, as the party has chosen some undiscussed people in the last few years, especially in 2023. Rekha Gupta is the fourth woman leader in the BJP to hold this post.
The selection of Rekha Gupta has put an end to many colourful speculations after none of the half a dozen BJP leaders were considered fit to be the Chief Minister. Earlier, Sushma Swaraj, Sheila Dixit, Atishi have been the Chief Minister of Delhi.
After 12 days of suspense and speculation, Rekha Gupta was selected. Rekha Gupta, former president of Delhi University Students Union and first-time MLA from Shalimar Bagh in North-West Delhi, was not the name the BJP was expecting. Yes, she was in the shortlist. A top party leader said Rekha and all three of the party’s women MLAs were being considered, but all the talk was about the ‘giant’ Parvesh Verma. Parvesh Verma, who defeated Arvind Kejriwal and whose name was floating in the corridors of power as the next chief minister, lost his dreams when Rekha’s name came up.
After all, Mr Verma is a two-time Lok Sabha MP from Delhi and the son of former BJP chief minister Sahab Singh Verma. He had also defeated Arvind Kejriwal in the New Delhi seat and two of the last three Delhi chief ministers – Mr Kejriwal and the Congress’ Sheila Dixit – had won that constituency. And other names being considered ahead of Ms Gupta included the party’s Brahmin face Satish Upadhyay and Vijender Gupta, formerly the leader of the opposition. In contrast, Ms Gupta – though one of Delhi’s longest-serving councillors – was a low-key figure. And that came as a surprise even to her. Ms Gupta said when she left her home to attend the MLAs’ meeting on Wednesday evening, she had absolutely no idea that she would return as chief minister.
But the BJP’s selection should come as no surprise as the party has pushed some of them in the last few years, most notably in 2023, when it chose three unexpected individuals as chief ministers. Nine assembly elections were held in 2023. The BJP (and/or its allies) won five – Tripura, Nagaland, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Of these, BJP ally NDPP leader Neiphiu Rio remained chief minister in Nagaland and the party also retained Manik Saha in Tripura. For the other three, two of which (Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh) were snatched from the Congress, the BJP took surprising decisions. Without listening to the MLAs, Narendra Modi put new faces in the top post in the state who were never in the news. Big names were ignored then. Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan, Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh and Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh. That experiment was repeated in Delhi this week.
Instead, Bhajan Lal Sharma was installed in Rajasthan, Vishnu Dev Sai in Chhattisgarh and Mohan Yadav in Madhya Pradesh. A BJP MP explained that this was a well-planned effort by the BJP to balance caste-class demands ahead of the Lok Sabha elections due six months later. For instance, Chhattisgarh, a state where tribal communities make up 32 per cent of the population, the BJP chose a tribal leader. Madhya Pradesh got a chief minister from the Yadav community and Brahmin and Dalit representatives. And Rajasthan got a Brahmin leader and Rajput and Dalit representatives. Before and after 2023, that is, in 2022 and 2024, the BJP chose to retain chief ministers, including retaining Nayab Saini in Haryana and reinstating Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra. The selection of Rekha by the BJP reflects the same balancing act, sources said.
The party wanted a Vaishya face as its leader because its previous three chief ministers – Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma and Sushma Swaraj – represented Punjabi, Jat and Brahmin communities. For that purpose, Vijender Gupta was one option, but Rekha Gupta emerged as the choice through which the party wanted to send multiple messages… The Vaishya community has traditionally been with the saffron party and this time women voted for the BJP in large numbers.
Towards Bihar?
The selection of Rekha Gupta could also be an indication of how things may play out in Bihar, which goes to polls this year. Nitish Kumar is the chief minister at the moment, even though his JDU is a minority ally. The BJP will project him as its chief ministerial candidate. However, if the saffron party comes back to power and maintains or further increases its lead over Nitish Kumar, a change is possible.In such a situation, the question arises, who will be his successor? Here too, the BJP may try to spring a surprise by ignoring senior leaders.

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