Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) named former party student leader Rekha Gupta, 50, as the chief minister of New Delhi, the capital city of India.
The party won the most seats in the New Delhi polls earlier this month for the first time in 27 years. With 48 seats in the 70-member local assembly, BJP 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.
A law for India’s legislatures to have 33% female membership is expected to be implemented by 2029. Women hold about 14% of parliamentary seats now, India’s highest proportion since independence but far below the global average of 26.5%.
Gupta, a former BJP general secretary, started out as a student leader at Delhi University in 1992. She is known for initiatives on the welfare of women and children, as well as support for impoverished female students.
The BJP has not run Delhi for over a quarter of a century. It yielded power to the Congress party that ruled Delhi from 1998 to 2013, until the AAP burst onto the scene on an anti-corruption platform.
The AAP suffered a major setback when its founder and leader Arvind Kejriwal was arrested last year along with two other party officials on charges of receiving bribes from a liquor distributor. They have denied the accusation, claiming it was a part of a political conspiracy.
Kejriwal and the two others were later released on bail by the Supreme Court and Kejriwal subsequently stepped down as Delhi chief minister.
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