By choosing Rekha Gupta, three-time municipal councillor and first time MLA from Shalimar Bagh as the Chief Minister, the Bharatiya Janata Party has sent out a clear message down the line that leaders who emerge from the organization shall continue to be preferred for important positions.
In fact, Rekha Gupta is the second person from the Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad, as also the second erstwhile student activist to get the premier job in the national capital. Before her, Madan Lal Khurana, who led the party to a grand victory in 1993 was also from the ABVP and served as the secretary of the Allahabad University Students’ Union.
Rekha made her political debut in DUSU politics where she occupied important posts including that of the president. She is no green horn and is familiar with the city’s problems. As a municipal councillor, she became conversant with the daily needs of the people; it is common knowledge that the residents in general have grater interaction with the civic body than they have with the government.
It is evident that the new CM, who has been saddled with the greatest responsibility of her political career so far, is aware of this and is thus likely to keep in mind what ails the city before setting up her priorities. The BJP’s central leadership also has its own wish list and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always wanted Delhi to be amongst the best capitals in the globe with world class amenities.
For this to happen, Rekha Gupta and her team of ministers shall all have to rise to the occasion and fulfil the huge expectations the people have from them. They have no option but to perform, particularly after the people of the city have given them such a huge mandate and brought them to power after 27 years.
The greatest challenge which the new CM faces would be to deal with multiplicity of authority in the city, which becomes a major impediment in implementation of projects. Over the past ten years, the relations between the elected representatives and the bureaucracy have been strained and the immediate task would be to re-assure the babus while getting things done at rapid pace.
As stated earlier in this column, the elections have a farcical dimension to it and though there is an elected Assembly in place, the real powers vest with the Centre through the Lt. Governor, who is virtually the boss so far as the capital goes. The relations between
Rekha Gupta has to ensure that while the bureaucrats should be kept in good humour to get the work done, it was even more important to remain accessible to the common people in general and the elected representatives in particular. Khurana’s USP was that he was always available and led from the front when it came to getting his policies implemented.
There are certain things which happened during the BJP’s first five-year term in office which shall not be repeated. In the years from 1993 to 1998, the BJP had three Chief Ministers. The resultant perception was that the party had no consistency and thus had squandered the mandate given to it by the residents.
The central leadership of the party would have to ensure that ambitious members of the new Cabinet do not try to become impediments in the overall scheme of things, in order to be one up on the new CM. While this is unlikely to happen in view of Narendra Modi’s blessings on Rekha Gupta, the party shall all the same need to be careful.
Every member of the government as well as those outside it would have to back the new CM and any attempt to undermine her authority would be dangerous in the long run. In this context, the first meeting Khurana had with his officials in 1993 after taking over remains extremely significant.
He had told all the bureaucrats present that since he was the elected CM, he would be recommending a lot of work-related cases. There would be also some instances which the officials find to be contrary to the rules or established practices. They were free to point those out to him. However, if they were unable to do some work which had been recommended by him on account of the regulations, then they should stick to their stand and he would understand.
However, he would be absolutely unsparing that after refusing to do a job and conveying the same to him, they did it at the instance of somebody else, however, powerful he or she may be. The No should be not only for him but for one and all. There was a terse message to assert his authority in this meeting.
There is also speculation as to what will happen to many seniors who have been left out of the ministry. There are the BJP MLAs who won even during Kejriwal’s spectacular victories. The trio—Om Prakash Sharma, Vijendra Gupta and Mohan Singh Bisht may have to be also accommodated somewhere.
However, right now, the focus would be on Rekha Gupta, who is poised for greater heights if she performs and leaves her footprint on the city’s development. She needs all the best wishes and cooperation. Between us.