Rekha Gupta, a first-time lawmaker from Shalimar Bagh in west Delhi who rose through the ranks from a student leader to a three-time councillor, will take oath as the next chief minister of Delhi on Thursday after a meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s newly elected legislators picked the 50-year-old for the top job.
Gupta, along with senior leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad, Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, Virendra Sachdeva and others, reached Raj Niwas on Wednesday evening to meet lieutenant governor VK Saxena and stake claim to power. She is now set to take oath as Delhi’s ninth chief minister on Thursday in a mega ceremony attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a phalanx of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders. Six other ministers are also likely to be sworn in.
“I want to thank Modi ji, the BJP high command and the people of Delhi for giving us this opportunity after 27 years. A new chapter is beginning and they have given this responsibility to me. This is a proud moment for the women of this country… Half of the country’s population thanks Modi ji… I pledge that I will every moment fulfiling this responsibility,” Gupta posted on X.
The announcement of her name culminated 11 days of suspense after the BJP won an impressive victory in the February 5 assembly elections, trouncing the Aam Aadmi Party.
The ministers who are likely to take oath alongside Gupta on Thursday are lawmakers Parvesh Verma, Kapil Mishra, Ashish Sood, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Ravindra Raj and Pankaj Singh, according to people aware of the matter, though no formal announcement was made.
“I have full faith that you will work with dedication in the direction of the resolution taken by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make Delhi one of the top capitals of the world,” Union home minister Amit Shah said soon after Gupta was anointed.
A long-time member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) who entered student politics in 1992 as a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in Daulat Ram College, Gupta will become the fourth woman chief minister of Delhi – after Sushma Swaraj, Sheila Dikshit and Atishi. She is also the first woman chief minister named by the BJP since Anandiben Patel took charge of Gujarat in 2014.
AAP chief and former CM Arvind Kejriwal also congratulated Gupta. “I hope that she will fulfil all the promises made to the people of Delhi. We will support her in every work for the development and welfare of the people of Delhi,” Kejriwal said.
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.
Outgoing CM Atishi also congratulated her. “It is a matter of happiness that Delhi will be led by a woman. I hope that the promises made to the people of Delhi will be fulfilled. You will get the full support of Aam Aadmi Party for the development of Delhi,” she posted on X.
The decision was announced by party observers after a meeting of the newly elected BJP lawmakers at the Pandit Pant Marg party office on Wednesday evening. Around 7pm, senior party leaders, MPs, and newly elected MLAs started arriving at the office. This was followed by the arrival of the two central observers, former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and party’s national secretary Om Prakash Dhankar, deputed by the BJP’s central parliamentary board to oversee the process.
Three MLAs who were seen as among the front-runners for the CM’s post – Parvesh Verma, Vijender Gupta and Satish Upadhyay – proposed Gupta’s name in the meeting and were supported by nine legislators, said multiple MLAs present in the meeting. Gupta was unanimously elected as the leader of the legislature party. Outside, celebrations broke out as party workers rejoiced at the return to power in the Capital. The office was decorated with flags and banners with the red carpet rolled out. Giant placards of Modi, Shah and party chief JP Nadda were placed all over the premises, and musicians playing drums and clarinets.
Panda said that the decision was taken unanimously and New Delhi MP Bansuri Swaraj said that Gupta will “write a new chapter in Delhi”.
Born in 1974 in a middle-class family in Haryana’s Jind, Gupta moved to Delhi as a toddler. Her father, Jai Bhagwan Jindal, was the branch manager at the State Bank of India branch in Pitampura. She completed her B Com from Daulat Ram College in 1995 and her LLB from Chaudhary Charan Singh University in 2022.
Her political career began in student politics in 1994 as a secretary of the Daulat Ram College students union. She was elected as a councillor from North Pitampura in 2007 and again in 2012, when she served as the education committee chief and deputy chair of the standing committee. Over the last 15 years, she was active in the women’s wing of the party, rising to the national vice president’s position in 2021. She unsuccessfully fought the 2015 and 2020 assembly elections from Shalimar Bagh. She also lost a mayoral election to the AAP’s Shelly Oberoi in in February 2023.
In 2025, Gupta defeated AAP candidate Bandana Kumari in the Shalimar Bagh seat by a margin of more than 29,000 votes.
She will take oath at a mega show of strength by the NDA in an event to be attended by Modi, Shah, the chief ministers of several of the 20 states controlled by the alliance, business tycoons and prominent citizens. The party has also invited key constituents such as auto drivers, women and slum residents to attend the ceremony.
The ceremony will take place between noon and 1pm. A government official said the CM-designate and the council of ministers will be received by the chief secretary at the Ramlila grounds around 12.10pm, with Modi expected to join around 12.30pm. “The chief minister will be administered the oath around 12.35pm and the council will soon follow. The entire process will be wrapped up by 1pm,” said the official, requesting anonymity.