East Delhi MP Harshdeep Malhotra has been inducted in the council of ministers of Modi government 3. 0. The poll debutante won his respective seat with a sizable margin.
Malhotra was fielded instead of the two-time MP and cricketer turned politician Gautam Gambhir. In BJP’s stronghold parliamentary constituency of East Delhi, 47 year old Malhotra emerged victoriously by a margin of about 93,663 votes, defeating the joint AAP and INDIA alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar. Considered Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva’s right-hand man and a ground worker, the 47 year old leader claimed 52.33 per cent of the votes against the AAP Kondli MLA. While Kumar secured 5,71,156 votes, the former Delhi BJP general secretary secured 6,64,819 votes.
Malhotra was the only BJP MP-elect from the capital who attended a high tea event at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg for potential members of the Modi-led government’s third term. Malhotra is a graduate in botany and law from Delhi University while climbing up the organisational ranks of the party over several decades. A former district president from Navin Shahdara, Malhotra was elected as a councillor from East Delhi in 2017 and later rose to the rank of mayor of the erstwhile East Delhi Municipal Corporation.
Earlier, the former Chandni Chowk MP Harsh Vardhan had served as the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Minister of Science and Technology and Minister of Earth Sciences in the BJP-led NDA government from 30 May 2019 to 7 July 2021. He later resigned from his cabinet post ahead of the cabinet reshuffle in July 2021 and retired from active politics on 4 March 2024 after allegedly being denied a ticket for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Former delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel too was inducted in Modi’s first tenure as per the Delhi’s quota.
Former two time New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi also served as Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture of India from 7 July 2021. A lawyer in the Supreme Court, Lekhi, in July 2016, was appointed as chairperson of the Committee on Privileges of the Lok Sabha in Parliament and on 26 July 2019, former Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla appointed Lekhi as a chairperson of parliamentary committee on Public Undertakings.
