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The BJP high command and the Centre are looking for ‘visible results’ on the streets of the capital within the first 100 days in order to live up to the people’s confidence reposed in the party in this month’s assembly elections, sources said
The selection of a woman who has risen through the ranks in the RSS and the BJP is also a positive sign, as Delhi has had three CMs before this, sources said. Pic/ANI
The new Delhi chief minister, Rekha Gupta, will have to hit the ground running as the Bharatiya Janata Party high command and the Centre are looking for “visible results” on the streets of the capital within the first 100 days. This is in order to live up to the people’s confidence reposed in the party in this month’s assembly elections, BJP sources have told CNN-News18.
Sources in the party said five issues are on top of the CM’s agenda: the roll-out of the Ayushman Bharat medical insurance scheme in the national capital, the cleaning of the Yamuna river, de-silting of roads and sewers ahead of the monsoon season, a massive sanitation exercise to clean the city’s corners and streets of garbage, and the repair of roads. All these issues could feature in the first meeting of the new cabinet, after the oath-taking ceremony on Thursday.
The influence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the final decision on the CM’s name was also apparent as senior BJP leaders JP Nadda and Rajnath Singh met RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat in Delhi just ahead of the legislative party meeting where Rekha Gupta’s name was announced.
The 50-year-old Rekha Gupta is a first-time MLA from Shalimar Bagh but is an old RSS hand who was part of the Sangh’s students’ wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, and became the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) president in the late 1990s. She also served as a councillor in the capital and the party’s Delhi unit of the Mahila Morcha.
Gupta’s appointment was significant as the legislative party meeting was kept on a day when Bhagwat would be in Delhi for a function at the new RSS office. The RSS had been pressing for a “grassroots face” as the Delhi CM to be able to show performance as well as run a good administration. The selection of a woman who has risen through the ranks in the RSS and the BJP is also a positive sign, as Delhi has had three CMs before this, sources said. The BJP does not have a woman CM currently in the country.
BJP sources said people have reposed a lot of faith in the party while giving it a mandate of 48 out of the 70 seats in the capital, a win that has come after 27 long years. “The new CM and her team have their work cut out to ensure people see the difference from how AAP ran the government for over the last decade. This has also been the Prime Minister’s mantra and promise during the election campaign. The new team will work in mission mode to ensure the changes are experienced by people,” a BJP leader told CNN-News18.
The pending C&AG reports, over a dozen in number, will also be tabled in the first session of the new Delhi assembly as promised by the Prime Minister during the poll campaign. Sources said this could tighten the noose on the erstwhile AAP government and its ministers too.
