Thrown Out By Marshals Once, Vijender Gupta Now Set To Be Speaker Of Delhi Assembly

Last Updated:February 20, 2025, 12:23 IST

What probably set Vijender Gupta apart from the rest is his raising the C&AG report issue against the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi High Court.

Vijender Gupta was marshalled out of the Delhi Assembly in 2015, when he was leader of opposition.

He won when just three BJP MLAs won in Delhi, he sensed scams from afar, he was thrown out of Delhi Assembly by marshals, and is no set to take the chair of the Speaker of the Delhi Assembly. Vijender Gupta, who is set to be the Speaker of the Delhi Assembly, was once marshalled out of the House, when he was the Leader of the Opposition in 2015. The picture of him being marshalled out of the Delhi Assembly became iconic and is yet again going viral after his appointment as the Speaker of the House.

In 2015, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had a brute majority of 67 MLAs out of 70. The then Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, initially asked Gupta to leave the House till 4 pm after he entered into a war of words with AAP’s women legislators over a week-old issue. After Gupta refused, marshals were called in to carry him out forcibly.

Rohini’s ‘Gupta Ji’

A baniya face, winner during BJP’s washouts and with huge legislative experience, he is known as Rohini’s ‘Gupta Ji’ who managed to win for the BJP even when the party was crushed to just three MLAs in 2015 and AAP’s running joke back then was that the opposition could be accommodated on a bike. Rohini has been his fiefdom where he consecutively won in good and bad times, enjoying the support of the traders community.

Born in 1963, Gupta is a seasoned politician and an alumnus of Shri Ram College of Commerce. His political journey wasn’t of convenience but slow progression. He has been a three-time councilor from Rohini and then has served as the president of the Delhi BJP.

A smiling politician with legislative acumen — that’s how Gupta’s associates see him. It’s virtually impossible to catch him in a bad mood, they say. His legislative experience on the opposition bench is believed to come in handy when running the House. It’s a leaf out of BJP’s textbook where in Chhattisgarh, the party used former Chief Minister Raman Singh’s legislative acumen when they made him the Speaker after the party ousted Congress’s Bhupesh Baghel government in 2023.

But what probably set Vijender Gupta apart from the rest is his raising the C&AG report issue against the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi High Court. While the media was aloof, he sensed an alleged scam. In January this year, just ahead of the election, the Delhi High Court, in a strongly worded observation, sought the tabling of 14 CAG reports in the House. Justice Sachin Datta had said, “You should have promptly forwarded the reports to the Speaker and had a discussion in the House. The timeline is stark. The way you have been dragging your feet is something that is unfortunate."

The BJP built a narrative of an alleged scam that the AAP had to hide which Vijender Gupta, along with his colleagues were trying to unfold. This further set the tone of the election that wasn’t in favour of Arvind Kejriwal.

News politics Thrown Out By Marshals Once, Vijender Gupta Now Set To Be Speaker Of Delhi Assembly