New Delhi:
Delhi Chief Minister and BJP leader Rekha Gupta on Friday said that she felt like the protagonist of the Bollywood movie ‘Nayak’ when she was selected for the post – a remark that can be seen as a veiled dig at the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government. The statement is in reference to actor Anil Kapoor’s character in the movie where he becomes the Chief Minister and takes action against corruption.
According to Ms Gupta, winning the Chief Ministerial post was not a “lottery” but an honour for all the daughters of the country.
“I felt like the protagonist of the ‘Nayak’ movie. I won’t say it was a lottery. It is an honour of all daughters in the country and PM Modi has realised the vision of women-led development and women-led government,” she said at the India Today Conclave.
Ms Gupta became BJP’s fourth Delhi Chief Minister and its second woman leader to hold the post. She is also the fourth woman Chief Minister of Delhi, following the BJP’s Sushma Swaraj, the Congress’ Sheila Dikshit, and the AAP’s Atishi, her immediate predecessor.
Underlining that the women in Indian society do not get opportunities to go on the “front foot”, she said, “The appointment of a woman as chief minister was a very significant vision of the party and PM Modi and it was not just a symbolic facelift but a genuine effort to promote women to higher posts of decision-making.”
The Chief Minister also assured to develop Delhi into a modern city and work to strengthen the basic facilities across the national capital.
Ms Gupta, a first-time MLA from Shalimar Bagh in the city’s northwest, was viewed by many as a surprise pick by the BJP, which had two-time ex-Lok Sabha MP Parvesh Verma (who is also the son of former Chief Minister Saheb Singh Verma) among the more high-profile names on the shortlist. She was sworn in on February 20 in a grand oath-taking ceremony at the city’s Ramlila Maidan. With her, six Cabinet ministers – Parvesh Singh Verma, Kapil Mishra, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Ashish Sood, Pankaj Kumar Singh, and Ravinder Indraj Singh – also took oath.
