Rekha Gupta Rises Amid Modi’s Imprints in Delhi as First Woman CM in Modi Govt

After nearly two weeks of deliberation, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) surprised many on the evening of Wednesday, 19 February, by announcing its first woman chief minister in 11 years of its ongoing reign at the Centre.As the Delhi CM, Rekha Gupta fills a void in the party. Riding on ‘Brand Modi’, the BJP has won several state elections, but the party couldn’t find a woman to become CM anywhere. In the 11th year of Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the saffron juggernaut, Gupta ended the irony within the party which clearly has a strategy of harvesting women's votes but does not find a suitable woman CM. Naming a woman as CM gives a fillip to the BJP's 'pro-woman' credentials and lends heft to its claim to the Women Reservation Bill's legacy in Parliament.Having finally won the Assembly elections from the Shalimar Bagh constituency after two unsuccessful attempts, Gupta seems to be riding on the party's luck. Her victory also coincided with the BJP’s first Assembly win in Delhi since 1993. Gupta also won an election that was pivoted around women voters. The ‘Mahila Samriddhi Yojana’, promised in the BJP’s ‘Sankalpa Patra’, offered Rs 2,500 per month to women as direct benefit transfer, which, in fact, was Rs 400 higher than what the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was similarly offering.Delhi Polls: Caste, Gender, Purvanchal, Punjab On BJP's Mind As It Picks Next CMOn the lines of poll verdicts in Haryana, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra, the promise for cash transfers for women in Delhi proved to be the trump card for the winning outfit. Gupta was also lucky as she had the least competition from the other four elected women BJP MLAs. Gupta, along with three other BJP women legislators, is one of the five elected women MLAs in Delhi including Atishi.Having come to Delhi from Haryana when she was a two-year-old, Gupta, now 50, cut her teeth navigating the grinding Delhi University Students Union (DUSU)‘s politics — and has since built an impressive political profile. With her law degree, Gupta follows in the footsteps of Arun Jaitely and Vijay Goel, stepping into the political limelight after years spent in the shadowy battlegrounds of DUSU.Gupta further cements her cadre credentials with stints in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). The incumbent BJP chief JP Nadda also has an ABVP pedigree. Gupta also had been a councillor in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).Insiders claim that she inched closer to the national leadership as vice president of the party's women wing. Besides, she has also been a national executive member. Thus, the national leadership gained more familiarity with her in recent years.Since her being named CM, social media has been actively digging up past tweets and posts by Gupta on platforms like X. In many of the posts, Gupta uses expletives and does not shy away from making rabble-rousing statements, especially while targeting opponents like Arvind Kejriwal. In one video (posted earlier by AAP-Uttar Pradesh's X handle) doing the rounds, Gupta can be seen vandalising government property inside the Municipal Corporation after losing the Mayoral elections in 2023.Modi is also keen to leave his footprints on Delhi. ‘Gujarat Model’ is his legacy as CM of the state. As PM of India, Modi needs a ‘Delhi Model’.A decade and a half after arriving on the national scene with his ‘Gujarat Model’, Modi finds a growing lack of international interest in it. His urge for a sharp global image is well-known. Within the BJP, leaders often claim (quietly) that Modi's plans for Delhi have a distinct similarity with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s revamping of Beijing, the capital of the Communist nation, which has left his imprint on the city's architecture, culture and politics.In his pursuit to leave lasting imprints and expunge the marks of past rulers, Modi oversaw the construction of New Parliament, Bharat Mandapam, while work is in progress for the Central Secretariat. The Central Vista is his ambitious plan. The writing on the wall in political corridors reveals that the PMO will take major initiatives in pursuit of establishing the ‘Delhi Model’. For the past few years, the PMO had been holding ‘emergency meetings’ on the air pollution in Delhi. Modi’s key aides in the PMO have gathered piles of inputs on tackling nagging issues in Delhi. New Parliament, Old GovernanceAfter tasting the first win since 1993 in Delhi on 8 February, the BJP took 11 days to reveal the face of the next Delhi CM. The PM had returned from his two-nation tour last Friday.Flies on the wall reveal that the strenuous elimination round saw a few of the CM probables falling short of yardsticks. Also, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is learnt to have left imprints on the CM choice. Gupta beat former Lok Sabha MP Parvesh Verma, dubbed the 'giant killer', who even recently added the word ‘Swayamsevak’ to his X bio, in all caps. By defeating former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, he had hoped for a reward. But the BJP top brass decided against him, for he may have gained spotlight due to his stature which could have dimmed focus on the Prime Minister’s imprints in Delhi. Besides, the BJP didn’t want the dynastic politics barb to fly in its face. The party also decided against promoting regional identities in Delhi. This went against CM hopefuls from Purvanchali background. The BJP has indicated on occasions that the party discourages rise of regional identity in politics as it comes in conflict with party’s ‘politics of nationalism’. Delhi is a Union Territory with an Assembly. But the profile of the Delhi CM towers above its peers. Thus, the BJP sniffed out a chance to send a national message in its choice of the CM. The loud message is for the women voters across the country.In choosing a student leader, the party is also telling its cadre to become aspirational. This aligns with Modi’s reiteration that he would bring one lakh first-generation youth into mainstream politics. Unlike her peers in DUSU politics who hogged media limelight, Gupta largely stays away from grabbing headlines. This ticked the big selection box criteria, for a silent worker was required in Delhi in the CM office who will execute the action plan for Modi’s ‘Delhi Model’. (The author is a senior Delhi-based journalist, who spent over two decades in political journalism with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age, Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman. This is an opinion piece. The views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)

BECOME A MEMBER

Delhi CM Rekha Gupta is More Than Just ‘Woman Card’ for BJP

Rekha Gupta as CM sends a national message of Modi's long-awaited claim to the 'Delhi Model'.

Counting on Luck and 'Mahila' Card

Read Latest News and Breaking News at The Quint, browse for more from opinion

Topics: Modi Delhi BJP Delhi CM