‘Phulera panchayat’: AAP questions why Delhi CM’s husband attended official meeting

The Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday questioned why Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta’s husband participated in a government meeting, describing it as “unconstitutional” and accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of “mocking” democracy.

In a post on X, Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj shared photographs that showed the chief minister’s husband, Delhi-based businessman Manish Gupta, seated next to her during a meeting with bureaucrats.

The photographs, posted by Rekha Gupta on her social media handles, were from a review meeting held on Saturday at Jan Seva Sadan in the Shalimar Bagh constituency.

Sharing the photographs, Bharadwaj wrote that the Delhi government had turned “into Phulera panchayat”. The AAP leader was referring to the fictional village of “Phulera” from the web series Panchayat in which the husband of a woman sarpanch informally exercises authority.

“Just as in Phulera’s panchayat, where the woman sarpanch’s husband acted as the sarpanch, today in Delhi, the CM’s husband is sitting in official meetings,” he said on X. “This is completely unconstitutional. In the nation’s capital, democracy and the constitutional system are being mocked in this manner.”

The AAP leader added that the BJP had repeatedly criticised the Congress for “dynastic politics”.

“Is this not dynastic politics?” Bharadwaj asked. “Does the CM of the world’s largest party have no worker left whom she can trust? What is that work which only a family member can do?”

In April too, the Aam Aadmi Party had claimed that Delhi was being run by Rekha Gupta’s husband.

AAP leader and former Delhi Chief Minister Atishi had shared an image of Manish Gupta sitting in a meeting with officials from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Delhi Jal Board, the Public Works Department and the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board.

“Earlier we used to hear that if a woman Sarpanch was elected in the village, then all the government work would be handled by her husband,” Atishi had said. “But this must be the first time in the history of the country that a woman has become the Chief Minister and all the government work is being handled by her husband.”

The BJP, in response, had accused Atishi of insulting democracy and demanded an apology from the former chief minister.

‘Nothing wrong’, says BJP

On Monday, the BJP said that there was “nothing wrong” with the chief minister’s husband sitting for government meetings, NDTV reported.

“First of all, Manish Gupta is not only the husband of Rekha Gupta, but he was also looking after the constituencies of Shalimar Bagh,” NDTV quoted BJP leader Harish Khurana as saying. “He was looking after it as a social worker.”

Khurana claimed that Manish Gupta had “led the people’s delegation”, adding that he could sit there as a representative. “The meeting was not just for officers,” the BJP leader said. “A few residents were also sitting there.”

Amit Malviya, the BJP’s social media cell chief, also said that the AAP should find something “more substantive” with which to target Rekha Gupta.

“She was holding a review meeting of her constituency, which is managed by her husband – just as [former Delhi Chief Minister and Congress leader] Smt. Sheila Dikshit’s constituency was managed by her sister Rama Dhawan, and [wife of Arvind Kejriwal] Sunita Kejriwal used to look after [AAP chief and former chief minister] Arvind Kejriwal’s.”

Malviya added: “…Stop targeting Rekha Gupta just because she is a woman who is doing a good job and making Arvind Kejriwal look more ordinary with each passing day.”