REKHA Gupta’s appointment as the Chief Minister of Delhi marks a significant political moment, not just for the Bharatiya Janata Party (‘BJP’), which has returned to power in the national capital after 27 years, but also for the broader discourse on women’s representation in Indian politics. The decision to elevate Gupta to the state’s top executive position came after eleven days of deliberation within the party’s high command, eventually making her the fourth woman Chief Minister in Delhi’s history, only the second to currently serve in the chief minister’s position nationwide. .
As she took the oath of office, in a grand ceremony at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, accompanying Gupta were her six cabinet colleagues: Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, Ashish Sood, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Ravinder Indraj Singh, Kapil Mishra, and Pankaj Kumar Singh. Inconspicuously, they were all men. The optics of this moment vividly portrayed that while the appointment of a woman as Chief Minister was being celebrated as a step toward gender inclusivity, a closer look at the electoral landscape suggested otherwise.
