Chicago – February 20, 2025
India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party on Wednesday named a woman as the top government official in the state of New Delhi, which includes the country’s capital, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi moves to consolidate his party’s hold there after winning the local election.
Former party student leader Rekha Gupta, 50, was named New Delhi chief minister, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad announced.
The party won the most seats in the high-stakes New Delhi polls earlier this month for the first time in 27 years. With 48 seats in the 70-member local assembly, Bharatiya Janata Party ousted the Aam Aadmi Party, which won 22 seats.
Gupta thanked the party and said she would work hard to meet the challenges ahead. She faces significant tasks in tackling air and river pollution and poor infrastructure in the Indian capital. Before elections, her party had offered to revamp government schools, give free health services, free electricity, and a monthly stipend of over 2,500 rupees ($29) to poor women in Delhi.
Gupta is the fourth female chief minister in Delhi, but it is still rare for Indian political parties to name women to top positions. The only other woman who is chief minister of a state currently is West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee, of the All India Trinamool Congress party.
