Rekha Gupta should find governance challenges easier to deal with.
• Rekha Gupta, a first-time Member of the Legislative Assembly, is the new Chief Minister of Delhi.
• Gupta has risen through the ranks of the Sangh Parivar and won Delhi University Students Union and municipal elections.
• She has held positions in the party and its frontal organisations.
• Gupta’s task is to balance community and sectional interests within the party, command authority over the bureaucracy, and balance multiple power centres within the complex governance architecture of Delhi.
• She is the fourth woman Chief Minister of Delhi, the second woman Chief Minister of Delhi from the BJP, and the only woman among the party’s 14 Chief Ministers across India.
• Gupta represents the trader bania community, which has been a bedrock of BJP’s politics in Delhi for decades.
• The new government faces governance challenges such as air and water pollution, law and order, unemployment and underemployment, and affordable housing and infrastructure.