The installation of Rekha Gupta as Delhi’s chief minister on Thursday reaffirms the capital’s destiny to be ruled by women – she being the fourth in the line, after Sushma Swaraj of the BJP, Sheila Dikshit of the Congress and Atishi of the Aam Aadmi Party since 1992. Each of them left their mark, though Sheila Dikshit proved to be smarter among them. The choice fell on Rekha Gupta for several reasons: BJP’s principal political rival, the AAP fought the present assembly polls under the leadership of a woman, though the actual fight was waged on behalf of the party by the omnipresent Arvind Kejriwal. Also, a major factor for the win of the BJP this time is seen to be the wholehearted support it got from women voters, who have been promised a monthly dole of Rs 2,500 by the saffron party; the other factor being the support the party got from the government employees and other white collar workforce through the tax concessions that the Modi government announced through the Union Budget.
Clearly, the lot fell on Rekha Gupta also for the reason that she hails from the Vaishya community. The BJP, keen on neutralizing the influence of Arvind Kejriwal, found Gupta as the best bet to drag away the trading community that has all along formed the main bulwark for the AAP. This was also the reason why strong claims of the Brahmins for the CM post were played down by the RSS. The numerically strong Jats got a deputy CM in the form of Parvesh Verma. Rekha Gupta as a three-term councillor, BJP national executive member and vice president of the BJP Mahila Morcha, holds a special clout in the party. Having started her public life as an ABVP student leader from Delhi University, she’s well-groomed to handle the key responsibility. Her close ties with the central party leadership and by extension the Modi government should strengthen her hands and be of help to speed up the infra and social sector development of Delhi. As PM Modi rightly claims, Delhi now has a double-engine government to take care of the national capital territory that boasts of a population of 17million.
While Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP lost the polls, it’s too early to write them off. The party that had won some 54 per cent of the votes in the two previous assembly polls ended up this time with 43 per cent votes. Its seat tally fell from 62 in the 70-member assembly in 2015 – and 67 in 2020 polls – to 22 this time. The BJP got only two per cent more votes, 45 per cent, compared to its principal rival this time, though it won 48 seats. In terms of vote share, the difference is narrow. Herein lies an iota of hope for Kejriwal and his party.
