New Delhi:

Ten years ago the BJP’s Vijender Gupta was marshalled (well, thrown, actually) out of the Delhi Assembly amid much fury over allegedly derogatory remarks by a party colleague, OP Sharma, against then-AAP MLA Alka Lamba.

Tremendous visuals from within the Assembly showed Mr Gupta, dressed in a pristine white kurta-pyjama set – being lifted, shouting and twisting, by half-a-dozen marshals. The BJP leader even held tightly onto the furniture, fighting and resisting all the way out the exit.

Today, Mr Gupta returns as the Speaker of the same Assembly, after the BJP scripted an almost impossible win in the 2025 Delhi election. He retained the Rohini seat he has held since 2015.

“I am thankful to the party for giving me this responsibility… to be Speaker of the Delhi Assembly. I will fulfill my responsibility. I hope we will have healthy discussions in the House,” he told news agency PTI.

VIDEO | Delhi: BJP leader Vijender Gupta (@Gupta_vijender) says, “I am thankful to the party for giving me the responsibility of Speaker of Delhi Assembly. I will fulfill my responsibility… I hope we will have healthy discussions in the House.”

(Full video available on PTI… pic.twitter.com/8SsH8GEmNT

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 20, 2025

Vijender Gupta’s return will likely spell more trouble for a battered AAP, for he had promised, after his election win last week, that 14 pending reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, or CAG, about the former AAP government would be tabled in the House and made public.

The reports, he claimed, would “expose how the AAP misled the people of Delhi with false promises while engaging in financial irregularities amounting to crores”. Mr Gupta also then hit out at the AAP, declaring the party had blocked BJP MLAs’ efforts to table these CAG reports.

Mr Gupta was previously also the Leader of Opposition.

READ | All About Rekha Gupta, Delhi’s Fourth Woman Chief Minister

Sources earlier said he was even on a shortlist for the Chief Minister’s post, something that eventually went to Rekha Gupta, a first-time MLA from Shalimar Bagh who becomes the fourth BJP Chief Minister of Delhi and the second woman from the party to hold that post.

What Happened In 2015?

On November 30, 2015 there was, as there so often is in state Assemblies and the Parliament in India, chaos as the AAP and BJP MLAs went toe-to-toe over the alleged derogatory remarks.

Ram Niwas Goel, then the Speaker, asked Vijender Gupta to leave the House till 4 pm.

ARCHIVES | BJP’s Vijender Gupta Thrown Out Of Delhi Assembly By Marshals

And, when he refused to budge, the marshals were called in. Mr Gupta resisted attempts to remove him and tried to hold on the bench, but the staff huffed and puffed and evicted him.

Before his eviction, Gupta accused the Speaker of being partial towards the AAP, then in power, alleging that three BJP legislators had been abused and assaulted by ruling party MLAs.

“But no action has been taken against them,” he claimed.

The AAP has not yet commented on Vijender Gupta’s nomination.

Rekha Gupta’s Big Day

Ms Gupta, a first-time MLA from Shalimar Bagh, told NDTV she had no expectations when she set out from her home Wednesday evening to attend a legislators’ meeting.

It was widely expected that her colleague, two-time former Lok Sabha MP Parvesh Verma, who beat AAP boss Arvind Kejriwal for the New Delhi seat, would get the job.

As it turned out, though, the BJP sprang quite a surprise.

READ | “Came To Know When Parvesh Verma…”: Rekha Gupta On CM News

“When I left home, I did not know that I would become the Chief Minister,” Ms Gupta told NDTV, explaining also that it was Mr Verma who had proposed her name.

READ | Parvesh Verma, Kapil Mishra In Rekha Gupta’s 6-Member Cabinet

Mr Verma, instead, joins five other BJP leaders as members of the new Delhi cabinet.

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.

New Delhi:

Reinstate bus marshals (a guard on a public bus to ensure safety of women passengers) and you can all but ensure victory for yourself in next year’s Delhi Assembly election – Chief Minister Atishi’s humorous ‘offer’ Friday afternoon to Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Vijender Gupta.

The remark, made during a sitting of the Delhi Assembly, was directed at Mr Gupta, the MLA from the Rohini constituency, who had criticised the ruling Aam Aadmi Party on this issue.

“On November 10 we had a meeting. On November 13 we sent a report to LG saab. Today is November 29. Now the proposal to reinstate bus marshals is with him…”

“Vijender saab keeps saying, ‘We removed them (the bus marshals) because (then) Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asked… OK. I am also Chief Minister and now I am saying, “please bring them back’.”

Atishi, smiling broadly, also took a jab at Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena – the centre’s rep in the national capital who often has run-ins with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party. “If he listens to everything a Chief Minister says… he can listen to what I say and bring back bus marshals.”

VIDEO | “You (BJP MLA Vijender Gupta) just get the file for the appointment of bus marshals signed by the LG, I will convince my party not to field any candidate against you in Rohini, I will also campaign for you,” said Delhi CM Atishi (@AtishiAAP) speaking in the Assembly,… pic.twitter.com/XxVHRuDwlO

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) November 29, 2024

And then the grinning Chief Minister slipped in the ‘offer’; she said, “You just get the file for the appointment of bus marshals signed by the LG. I will convince my party not to field any candidate against you…”, and threw in a bonus, saying, “I will also campaign for you.”

The spat between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and Lieutenant Governor VK – over marshals on Delhi Transport Corporation buses – has been bubbling since October last year.

Back then the latter directed the re-tasking of 10,000 such personnel – designated as Civil Defence Volunteers – to fill sanctioned posts of Home Guards. This was after objections by the Directorate of Civil Defence; it was argued they were meant for disaster management roles only.

READ | Delhi Govt Appeals To Lt Governor For Reinstatement Of Bus Marshals

However, earlier this month the Delhi government passed a proposal to eventually reinstate all 10,000 personnel; this would be after a four-month tour to aid anti-pollution efforts in the city.

That proposal was sent to the Lieutenant Governor, and it was approved.

The issue is the LG then urged the Delhi government to formulate a separate scheme to permanently redeploy those 10,000 personnel as bus marshals. But the Delhi government insists, per a report placed before the Lieutenant Governor, that this falls under his purview.

The LG responded by demanding details of the proposal, including a clear definition of roles and responsibilities, budgetary provisions, and service conditions, all approved by the cabinet.

That was the report, according to Chief Minister Atishi, sent on November 13.

Atishi has been Chief Minister since September but, like her predecessor, Mr Kejriwal, has already had run-ins with the Lieutenant Governor. However, in a surprise move last week, Mr Saxena showed praise, rather than criticism, calling her “a thousand times better”.

READ | “Thousand Times Better…”: Delhi Lt Governor’s Surprise For AAP’s Atishi

Mr Saxena didn’t always have kind words for Atishi.

In April, while Mr Kejriwal was in jail, he ripped into her and party colleague Saurabh Bhardwaj for “a lack of seriousness” when summoned to his office to discuss “routine works of governance”.

The AAP is widely seen as facing as stern test to win a third consecutive Assembly election, particularly after persistent attacks from the BJP (and on-paper allies Congress) over issues like the air quality crisis and the ‘sheeshmahal‘ controversy swirling around the ex-Chief Minister.

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.