New Delhi: Rekha Gupta, the Chief Minister-designate, will be sworn in along with her Council of Ministers at Ramlila Maidan on Thursday afternoon in the presence of Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, marking the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) return to power in Delhi after 26 years.
Gupta, 50, was elected as the Leader of the House in the newly formed 8th Delhi Assembly following a BJP legislature party meeting on Wednesday. Later that evening, she staked her claim to form the government at Raj Niwas and was invited by Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena to assume office. Gupta will become Delhi’s 9th Chief Minister upon taking the oath.
Alongside Gupta, six MLAs—Parvesh Verma, who defeated AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal in New Delhi, Ashish Sood, Pankaj Singh, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Kapil Mishra, and Ravinder Indraj—will also be sworn in as ministers, according to a government notification.
The new Council of Ministers is expected to hold its first meeting at the Delhi Secretariat around 3pm, where welfare initiatives, including the Mahila Samriddhi Yojana, which provides eligible women with Rs 2,500 per month, and the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme, may be implemented, BJP sources told PTI.
BJP secured victory in 48 out of 70 seats in the February 5 Assembly elections, ending the decade-long rule of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Arvind Kejriwal. The party last governed Delhi from 1993 to 1998.
Gupta, a first-time MLA, has risen through BJP ranks and is closely associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), party insiders told the news agency. A former Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) president and municipal councillor, she will be Delhi’s fourth woman chief minister, following Sushma Swaraj, Sheila Dikshit, and Atishi.
She will also be the fourth BJP leader to hold the post after Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma, and Sushma Swaraj. Notably, she is currently the only female Chief Minister in all BJP-ruled states.
Gupta secured her seat from Shalimar Bagh, defeating AAP’s Bandana Kumari by over 29,000 votes in the recent elections.
