The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has selected Rohini MLA Vijender Gupta, who was once the head of its Delhi unit, as its candidate for the position of Delhi Assembly Speaker.
Accepting his nomination, the BJP veteran leader informed news agency PTI, "My first priority will be to present the pending CAG reports before the House, which were previously withheld by the AAP government."
Vijender Gupta, who secured the highest victory margin (37,816 votes) among the 48 BJP candidates who won in the recent Delhi Assembly elections, played a crucial role in the party’s resurgence. These elections marked the end of the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) decade-long rule in the national capital.
The 61-year-old is now elected three times in succession to the Rohini seat. Earlier, he was the Delhi Assembly's Leader of Opposition from August 2024 to February 2025, replacing Ramvir Singh Bidhuri who shifted to the Lok Sabha. Gupta had already been in this position from April 2015 to February 2020. Moreover, he led the BJP Delhi unit between May 2010 and February 2013.
In the meantime, some of Vijender Gupta's past videos showing him being manhandled out of the Assembly at the behest of AAP's then Speaker Ram Niwas Goel have again appeared on social media. The video has generated controversy, with several noting the irony that Gupta is now set to become the Assembly's presiding officer, while AAP chief and former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, as well as Ram Niwas Goel, will no longer be members of the House. Kejriwal lost to BJP's Parvesh Verma, while Goel retired from electoral politics, citing age.
As BJP returns to power in Delhi after 27 years, the party has chosen Rekha Gupta, a new MLA from Shalimar Bagh, to lead as Chief Minister. Her oath-taking ceremony will take place at the historic Ramlila Maidan on Thursday afternoon, in a ceremonial event graced by top party leaders and party supporters.
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