THE Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) choice of Mrs. Rekha Gupta as Chief Minister of Delhi is in line with its usual thought-process -- as part of which the party has chosen a fresh face (of a first-time legislator) to head the Government. Though there were many even within the party not knowing who Mrs. Rekha Gupta was, the party chose her because it wished to give a strong message not just to voters of Delhi but also elsewhere in the country -- that the BJP wants new leadership to come up at every possible place, and that the women voters everywhere must realise what sort of importance the party attaches to the issue of women empowerment. Now that the BJP has made the choice, the entire organisation will work hard to make it successful in every which the way -- as is the party’s style. True, Mrs. Rekha Gupta may face some internal tensions, all right mainly due to some disgruntled elements that did not get their due respect.

 

That such tensions may arise was indicated at the oath-taking ceremony where those who took oath as Ministers later bowed to Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, but did not pay much attention to the new Chief Minister standing next to the Prime Minister. That part, it is obvious that in due time, Mrs. Rekha Gupta will be able to win favours from all segments of the party and the Government once she starts her actual work as Chief Minister in the next few hours. There is no doubt that she will enlist the support of some seniors in her dayto-day functioning and eventually ensure that all segments are firmly behind her as she starts taking important decisions to promote developmental narrative of the party and the Government. There is every reason to believe that Mrs. Rekha Gupta will prove to be a Chief Minister worthy of appreciation from all corners within the party or outside it. Of course, the tasks before the new Government in Delhi are enormous, to say the least. But even before much before the oath ceremony on February 20, the Delhi administration has launched the Yamuna River cleansing drive by pressing into service modern dredging machines to cleanse the terribly dirtied flow of the historic river that Prime Minister Mr. Modi called ‘Yamuna Maiyya’ (Mother Yamuna).

 

That action announced the intent with which the BJP is entering the arena of governance of Delhi. Mrs. Rekha Gupta will now lead that process as Chief Minister. There is every reason to believe that she will prove to be a reasonably successful leader of the Capital-State in a short while. Of course, Mrs. Rekha Gupta is not a complete novice to public affairs, after having gathered a vast experience of thirty years in the BJP fold. She is young, all right, but not bereft of appropriae experience to handle the party as well as party mandate .True, the challenges in Delhi are stupendous, to say the least, as the previous Government only did talking but not working.

 

It made promises and broke those habitually. That helped the BJP to ride to power on the shoulders of popular discontent that built for over a decade of incompetent governance. But that also has now become an exacting challenge for the Rekha Gupta Government since the list of promises to fulfill is long. Given its record in other States, the BJP will do everything in its power to deliver the promises made during the campaign. However, at the start, it would be risky to make any definitive observations in advance about how the Rekha Gupta Government will actually function and deliver. Details apart, it is possible, however, to assert that the strike of the Rekha Gupta Government will be certainly better than that of its predecessor. The taste -- and test -- of the pudding will now will be available to the nation in the next few weeks, until which it will be a time to wait and watch.