Behind Rekha Gupta’s rise is an RSS hand; it even arranged her marriage

As Rekha Gupta took oath as the new chief minister of Delhi on Thursday (February 20), Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that she had “risen from the grassroots”, been active in “campus politics, state organisation, municipal administration” and had now become “an MLA as well as chief minister”, expressing confidence that she would do justice to her position.

Those words were not merely rhetorical. While Gupta’s ascent is nothing short of remarkable, her journey was not easy. And her crowning as the Delhi chief minister is the culmination of a three-decade-long unfailing faith the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has shown in her.

Throughout these 30 years, the RSS has stood right behind Gupta — from spotting her oratorial talent early on to going to the length of finding a groom for her from the extended Sangh family so that she could continue with a career in politics.

Family opposition

In a way, Rekha Gupta’s political growth has been simultaneous with the BJP’s nearly-30-year quest to return to power in Delhi. The party’s hold over the national capital ended under the leadership of Sushma Swaraj in 1998, while Gupta came into public life merely three years before that — in 1995, when she became secretary of the students’ union at Delhi University.

Gupta took her next quick step in politics only a year later, when she was elected president of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) in 1996, replacing Congress leader Alka Lamba. But that did not happen smoothly. When the RSS students’ wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) decided to field Gupta for the post of DUSU president in 1996, her family initially dismissed the idea.

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First-generation politician

Gupta’s family, based in Delhi’s Pitampura area then, had nothing to do with politics; only her brother had become an RSS member by then. “Rekha Gupta is a first-generation politician. Her father was a senior official in a bank who was posted in Sonipat, and the family used to live in Pitampura,” a senior RSS leader in Delhi told The Federal.

“When Rekha Gupta became an ABVP member, senior leaders of the ABVP and the RSS came to know of her because of her brother, who was also an RSS member in Pitampura. Just like Rekha Gupta, her brother is also a first-generation RSS member, and no other member of her family was associated with the organisation,” the leader went on.

Oratorial talent

But it was not merely because of her brother that the RSS noticed her. Soon after she joined the ABVP and became the DUSU secretary, ABVP leaders realised that Gupta was a good orator. She could aggressively take up the issues of her fellow students when Alka Lamba was the DUSU president and the most prominent student leader of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI).

Lamba, now a Congress leader and a former MLA, also recalled their student days together at Delhi University as Gupta took oath on Thursday. “We have our ideological differences with her, but we have also worked together at the Delhi University when I was the DUSU president and Rekha Gupta was the secretary representing ABVP,” Lamba told the media.

Congratulating Gupta, Lamba said she hoped Gupta, being a woman, would make it her priority to act against crime against women in Delhi.

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Marriage arranged by RSS

Anyhow, going back three decades again to the Nineties, Gupta’s family members were worried that if their daughter became actively involved in politics and decided to make a career out of it, they might find it difficult to find a suitable match for her. Therefore, they were reluctant to let her contest the DUSU elections for the post of president.

The ABVP and the RSS, however, did not give up.

“Senior leaders of the ABVP, along with members of the RSS in Delhi, were assigned the duty to convince the family members of Rekha Gupta to allow her to contest the elections. To pacify them, senior ABVP leaders even promised her parents that if they allowed Rekha Gupta to contest the DUSU elections, they would find a good match for her,” the senior RSS leader told The Federal.

And, they did keep their promise. A few years later, the budding politician got married to Manish Gupta, who belonged to a family of swayamsevaks, the leader added.

Rapid rise, then a lull

The first hurdle crossed, Gupta tasted success as a student leader. The next big moment came for her in 2004, when she was made the national secretary of the Yuva Morcha of the BJP. From this national role, she hopped on to another one, when the BJP leadership made her the general secretary of the party’s Delhi unit. It was Union minister Nitin Gadkari, who, as the party president, initiated her into the national executive of the BJP.

She is among the few BJP leaders who have worked in all kinds of public organisations in Delhi. She has been a member of the DUSU; she has twice been elected as the councillor, both times from North Pitampura, in 2007 and 2012. But the next step took time.

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Road ahead not easy

After her stint as a councillor, Gupta was given the opportunity to contest the Delhi elections for the first time in 2015 but she could not win against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate. She again failed to make a mark in the 2020 Delhi elections, but the long wait was finally over this February when she was elected to the legislative assembly for the first time, from Shalimar Bagh.

And now, as the Delhi chief minister, she inherits the BJP’s political legacy in Delhi that ended under another woman leader way back in 1998. But the road ahead for Gupta is not going to be easy, Abhay Dubey, author and professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi, told The Federal.

No administrative experience

“The Delhi government has to bear a huge financial liability because the BJP has promised to give Rs 2,500 to every woman. Th new government has also promised to continue with water and power subsidies to the people; it has promised to clean the Yamuna and clear the garbage dump in Delhi. It is not an easy task and BJP has no excuse because it is in power nationally too,” Dubey pointed out.

“The real challenge for Rekha Gupta is that she has no administrative experience. She has not played a major role in the Delhi assembly in the past, and she did not take a major policy step as a councillor of Delhi. So, the new chief minister and the BJP have a lot to prove,” Dubey said.

And so does the RSS, because Gupta’s chief ministership will be the biggest test of the 30-year-long faith it has shown in her.