The announcement of Rekha Gupta as Delhi’s next chief minister signifies the BJP’s 27-year comeback to power. She defeated Bandana Kumari of the AAP with 68,200 votes in the 2025 Delhi assembly elections. The AAP’s position in the legislative assembly was greatly diminished as the BJP won 48 seats.
NEW DELHI: After 27 years, the BJP has returned to the nation’s capital with the announcement of Rekha Gupta as its next chief minister. A first-time MLA, Rekha defeated AAP candidate Bandana Kumari by 29,595 votes to win the Shalimar Bagh seat in the Delhi assembly elections. The AAP’s ten-year hold over the region came to an end with this triumph.
In 1992, she began her political career at Delhi University’s Daulat Ram College with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). She worked on student problems while serving as President of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) from 1996 to 1997.
After winning a seat on the North Pitampura council in 2007, Gupta worked to upgrade neighborhood amenities like parks, libraries, and swimming pools. She also started the “Sumedha Yojana” to help female students in higher education who are less well off. She oversaw programs for women’s empowerment while serving as chair of the Women Welfare and Child Development Committee.
In addition, Gupta was a member of the national executive committee of the BJP Mahila Morcha and its general secretary in Delhi.
50-year-old Rekha was born in Nandgarh village, which is in the Jind district of Haryana, in 1974. Her father worked for the State Bank of India as an officer. Rekha’s family relocated to Delhi in 1976 when she was only two years old. She completed her primary to higher education in Delhi thereafter.
Only 22 of the 70 assembly seats were gained by the AAP, compared to 48 by the BJP. Prominent AAP leaders lost their seats, including former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. After serving as New Delhi’s representative for more than a decade, Kejriwal lost by 4,089 votes to Parvesh Verma of the BJP.
In addition to praising the BJP’s historic win, Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticized the AAP’s leadership and thanked the Delhi populace for their support. A clear mandate for growth and trust over “ostentation, anarchy, and arrogance” was the outcome, according to him.
Atishi was able to hold onto her seat in Kalkaji, but a number of AAP leaders, including Sisodia and Satyendra Jain, lost. Modi promised to make Delhi a great city for its citizens and to uphold good governance.
After 27 years, the BJP regained control of Delhi, dealing a serious setback to the AAP, which had dominated the 2015 and 2020 elections.
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