The Leader of Opposition in the outgoing Assembly, Vijender Gupta contested and from the BJP stronghold of Rohini by a margin of 12,648 votes.
File image of Vijender Gupta. Image courtesy: @Gupta_vijender
Gupta, a Bania by caste, was one of the three BJP candidates to win amid the unprecedented Aam Aadmi Party wave.
In the last election, Gupta narrowly defeated CL Gupta of the AAP by a margin of 5,000 votes.
The BJP leader has assets worth Rs 1.48 crore, while his wife owns immovable assets worth Rs 5.35 crore, according to his election affidavit. He declared an income of nearly Rs 10.66 lakh in the income tax returns filed for 2018-19, from Rs 6.28 lakh shown in returns filed for 2015-16.
Gupta is a veteran of Delhi politics, having started his career as a student leader at Delhi University. He was a secretary of the Janta Vidyarthi Morcha in 1983 as well as the vice-president of the Delhi University Students Union in the 1980s.
He rose to prominence as a capable councillor from Rohini, a ward which he represented thrice between 1997 and 2012. As per media reports, he is often credited for making Rohini a model municipal unit. He also served as the chairman of the standing committee of the MCD between 2007 and 2009.
As the Delhi BJP chief in 2012, he led his party to a massive win in the municipal polls for the newly created North Delhi Municipal Corporation, East Delhi Municipal Corporation and South Delhi Municipal Corporation. After the win, Gupta began to be touted as a probable chief ministerial candidate of the BJP in the 2013 election.
However, he lost the 2013 polls to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal. The Shri Ram College alumni was later appointed the Leader of Opposition when he won his Assembly seat in the 2015 election. In August 2019, Gupta had to face suspension from the Assembly for the duration of the session for using unparliamentary language and creating ruckus over demanding a motion of thanks for the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution.