First time MLA Rekha Gupta on Thursday was sworn in as Chief Minister of Delhi at Ramlila Maidan in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his Cabinet colleagues and chief ministers of National Democratic Alliance-governed states, among others.
Along with Gupta, leaders including Parvesh Verma, Ashish Sood, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Ravinder Indraj Singh, Kapil Mishra and Pankaj Kumar Singh also took oath as ministers. Verma was the first MLA to take oath as the minister, followed by Sood, Sirsa, Mishra, Indraj and Singh.
Mishra, the newly-elected legislator from Karawal Nagar, was a minister in the first Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government.
All the ministers took oath in Hindi, except for Sirsa who did so in Punjabi.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena administered the oath of office to Rekha Gupta elected from Shalimar Bagh in noethr Delhi area and her council of ministers.
Her appointment makes her the fourth woman to hold the position in Delhi, following BJP’s Sushma Swaraj, Congress’ Sheila Dikshit, and AAP’s Atishi and also the fourth BJP chief minister of Delhi after Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma and Sushma Swaraj.
The 50-year-old MLA, who took charge of her office at the Delhi Secretariat in the afternoon, is also the only woman in the NDA team of chief ministers and the second in the country after TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal.
Congratulating the new chief minister, Modi expressed confidence that she will work for the city’s development with full vigour.
Shortly after the swearing-in ceremony, the Modi wrote on ‘X’, “Congratulations to Smt. Rekha Gupta Ji on taking oath as Delhi’s Chief Minister. She has risen from the grassroots, being active in campus politics, state organisation, municipal administration, and now MLA as well as Chief Minister. I am confident she will work for Delhi’s development with full vigour. My best wishes to her for a fruitful tenure.”He also congratulated the six new ministers
in another social media post he congratulated Parvesh, Ashish Sood, Sirsa, Ravinder Indraj Singh, Kapil Mishra and Pankaj Kumar Singh on taking oath as Ministers in the Delhi Government. “She (Rekha) has risen from the grassroots, being active in campus politics, state organisation, municipal administration and now MLA as well as Chief Minister…,” PM said.
About 50,000 people convulsed into the historic ground, which has seen many a rally and protest through the decades, festooned with marigold flowers and bunting. There was dance, music and drumbeats with many waving BJP flags, chanting “Jai Shri Ram”, “Modi, Modi” and a bunch of enthusiastic supporters singing “Ram Ji Ko Keh Dena, Jai Arya Ram”.
The high on optics event was attended by chief ministers of states ruled by the BJP and its NDA allies -- Maharashtra’s Devendra Fadnavis, Andhra Pradesh’s Chandrababu Naidu, Goa’s Pramod Sawant, Haryana’s Nayab Singh Saini and Meghalaya’s Conrad Sangma.
Union ministers, including Amit Shah, party chief JP Nadda, Rajnath Singh and Hardeep Puri, were there too to mark the occasion of the party adding one more electoral win to its kitty. Uttar Pradesh deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, and Andhra Pradesh’s Pawan Kalyan were present too.
Rekha’s predecessors Athisi and Arrvind Kejriwal were invited butt they skipped the ceremony however rebel AAP leader Swati Maliwal graced the occasion.
Referring to the defeat of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the recent assembly elections, Shah said the people of Delhi have ended the reign of deceit and breach of promise and chosen BJP, which is the synonym of service and dedication. The senior BJP leader said the party government will make Delhi the best capital of the world by making it clean, beautiful and prosperous.
After the ceremony, the new cabinet and other dignitaries headed for lunch at a hotel in the city.
Later, Gupta reached the Delhi Secretariat to take charge as the chief minister of Delhi. She was accompanied by party leaders, including state BJP in-charge Baijayant Panda and state president Virendra Sachdeva among others. After taking charge, Gupta told reporters not a single day would be wasted by her government in realising the “mission” of a “Viksit Delhi”. “We will fulfil all the commitments made to the people of Delhi,” she said.
