The Cabinet of the new government-led by Rekha Gupta balances representation of all major communities that propelled the BJP to power in Delhi with a massive majority after 27 years.
In the February five Delhi Assembly polls, the BJP won 48 seats, with nine of its MLAs belonging to the Bania community. Chief Minister Gupta, a first-time legislator, belongs to the community.
Along with CM Gupta (50), six newly elected MLAs — Pravesh Sahib Singh, Ashish Sood, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Kapil Mishra, Ravinder Indraj Singh, Kapil Mishra and Pankaj Singh — were administered the oath of office by Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena at the Ramlila Maidan here on Thursday. Manjinder Singh Sirsa, a third-time MLA from the Rajouri Garden Assembly constituency who has been selected for the new Cabinet, is the Sikh face of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi.
Besides Rajouri Garden, the BJP has also won Hari Nagar and Jangpura which have a sizeable number of Sikh voters. Gandhi Nagar MLA Arvinder Singh Lovely and Jangpura legislator Tarvinder Singh Marwah are the other Sikh MLAs of the BJP in Delhi. The party also inducted two Purvanchalis — Kapil Mishra and Pankaj Singh — into the Cabinet. The BJP's Jat face Parvesh Verma, who was a frontrunner for the chief minister's post, was also inducted into the new Cabinet and is expected to get major portfolios. Senior leader and first-time MLA from Janakpuri seat Ashish Sood, who has been appointed a minister in the new government, is a well-known Punjabi leader of the party. Moreover, the BJP, which tasted partial success in reserved assembly constituencies winning four of 12 such seats, appointed Ravindra Indraj as minister.
He defeated sitting AAP MLA Jai Bhagwan Upkar in the Bawana seat by over 31,000 votes.
PRAVESH SAHIB SINGH
[Minister of PWD, Legislative Affairs, Irrigation, Flood Control, Water, Gurudwara Elections]
BJP's Pravesh Sahib Singh first rose in national politics in 2014 when he won the West Delhi Lok Sabha seat but his profile took a leap when he emerged as the giant killer in the Delhi Assembly polls after defeating AAP supremo and three-time chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The 47-year-old Singh was a prominent Jat face of the party in the February 5 polls and was considered the frontrunner for the post of chief minister which eventually went to first-time MLA Rekha Gupta. Singh was inducted as a minister in the Delhi cabinet.
Pravesh Sahib Singh, a son of former chief minister Sahib Singh Verma, has the reputation of a firebrand leader who publicly declared himself as Kejriwal's rival in the New Delhi seat held by the former Delhi CM for three terms.
By setting himself up for possibly the biggest challenge of the assembly polls, Singh mirrored what Kejriwal had done in 2013 when the AAP chief pitched himself against another three-time Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit from the New Delhi constituency.
While he defeated Kejriwal by a margin of around 4,000 votes, he has the distinction of winning with record margins in the West Delhi Lok Sabha seat in 2014 and 2019. Singh holds an MBA degree from the Fore School of Management and has also been involved in social work through Rashtriya Swabhiman, a non-profit organisation founded by his father.
Born on November 7, 1977, in Delhi, he showed interest in politics since childhood and joined the RSS as a Bal Swayamsewak in 1991.
MANJINDER SINGH SIRSA
[Minister of Food and Civil Supplies, Forest and Environment Planning]
A prominent Sikh leader in Delhi's political landscape, Manjinder Singh Sirsa is an active social worker who was involved in organising 'oxygen langars' during the Covid pandemic. The leader, who turns (53) on February 28, was on Thursday sworn in as a minister in the new Delhi government led by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.
He took the oath in his mother tongue Punjabi.
His induction into the Delhi cabinet is seen as the BJP's effort to strengthen its support among the Sikh community, which has been critical of the party over its handling of the farmers' agitation, most of whom were Punjab, over the now-repealed farm laws.
He had secured victory over AAP's Dhanwati Chandela by a margin of 18,190 votes in the Delhi Assembly polls. A three-time MLA from Rajouri Garden, Sirsa quit the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) to join the BJP in 2021.
He first won the Rajouri Garden seat in 2013 on an Akali Dal ticket before switching to the BJP in 2017, winning subsequent elections under its banner.
The Sikh leader has also been actively involved in various relief efforts like the ones launched after the natural disasters in Nepal, Chennai, Uttarakhand, and Jammu and Kashmir. Sirsa has served as the president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC).
As the DSGMC president in 2019, he played a key role in Covid relief efforts, organising langar sewa, providing assistance to doctors and nurses, arranging home delivery of food, and facilitating oxygen cylinder distribution.
ASHISH SOOD
[Minister of Home, Power, Urban Development, Education/Higher and Technical Education, Training]
A former Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) president who rose through the ranks to hold key posts in the BJP, Janakpuri MLA Ashish Sood is a prominent Punjabi face in Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta's Cabinet that was sworn in here on Thursday. He has been allocated Revenue, Environment and Food and Civil Supplies departments of Delhi government.
The first time MLA from Janakpuri included his parents' names, first his father's and then his mother's, while taking the oath as a Delhi government Cabinet Minister at Ramlila Maidan on Thursday. "Main (I) Ashish Shriram Madan Gopal Sood...," the newly sworn minister began his oath. Notably, Shriram Madangopal Sood is his father's name. Similarly, later in his speech, the minister mentioned his mother's name, saying, "Main (I) Ashish Sushila Madan Gopal Sood..." and continued his oath. Senior citizens present at the iconic Ramlila Maidan, who heard Sood's words, appreciated him for including his parents' names while taking the oath of the Minister's office.
The first-time MLA from Janakpuri is known for his organisational skills and is currently in charge of the Goa BJP and the co-incharge of the party's Jammu and Kashmir unit.
Like the new chief minister, Sood too is a former Delhi University Students' Union president - winning the election in 1989 - and served in various capacities in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) including national secretary.
He became the general secretary of the BJP Yuva Morcha in 2003 and within two years went on to become its national vice president.
KAPIL MISHRA
[Minister of Law and Justice, Labour and employment, Development, Art and Culture, Language and Tourism]
Activist and now a Delhi minister, Kapil Mishra has undergone a complete transition - from being an avowed AAP member and a bitter critic of the BJP, RSS and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a controversial politician often regarded as the "posterboy of Hindutva".
On Thursday, Mishra took oath as a minister in the newly formed Delhi government at a grand ceremony at the historic Ramlila Ground.
His induction in the Rekha Gupta-led Delhi Cabinet is seen as a strategic move by the BJP as it consolidates its governance approach in the national capital.
Mishra (44), was an activist before he started his political journey.
He was actively involved in anti-corruption movements during the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in the national capital.
He began his political career with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) representing Karawal Nagar in the Sixth Legislative Assembly of Delhi in 2015.
He defeated BJP candidate and four-time MLA Mohan Singh Bisht by a margin of 44,431 votes.
Considered close to poet Kumar Vishwas, who was one of the founders of AAP, Mishra was inducted by AAP convener and the then chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in his cabinet as the water resources minister in 2015.
Mishra would level serious allegations against Modi, BJP and RSS inside and outside the Delhi Assembly.
RAVINDER INDRAJ SINGH
[Minister of Social Welfare, SC and ST Welfare, Coorperative and elections]
First-time MLA Ravinder Indraj Singh, who took oath as Cabinet minister in the newly formed Rekha Gupta government in Delhi on Thursday, has been an active member of the BJP's Scheduled Caste (SC) Morcha.
Singh is the Dalit face in the Rekha Gupta-led Delhi Cabinet. He is a member of the BJP's SC Morcha and has been working for the Dalit community for a long time.
A prominent Dalit leader in the Delhi BJP, Singh (50) has completed his higher education, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Delhi University's School of Open Learning (SOL). He defeated Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP's) Jai Bhagwan Upkar from the Bawana (SC reserved) seat by more than 31,000 votes.
Singh has been associated with the party's SC Morcha and has played a key role in mobilising support for the party in North Delhi.
His political journey is deeply rooted in Bawana, a constituency he now represents in the Delhi Assembly.
Singh's father, Indraj Singh, had also served as an MLA from the Narela constituency.
According to his election affidavit, he has assets worth over `7 Crore, with no criminal cases registered against him. Besides Ravinder Indraj Singh, five other leaders — Parvesh Sahib Singh, Ashish Sood, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Kapil Mishra and Pankaj Kumar Singh — were inducted into the Cabinet on Thursday.
PANKAJ KUMAR SINGH
[Minister of Health, Transformation, Transport and technology]
Debutant MLA Pankaj Kumar Singh, a Purvanchali face in the newly formed Rekha Gupta government, is a dental surgeon-turned-politician. Singh (48), sworn in as a minister on Thursday, has won from the Vikaspuri seat, defeating his nearest rival by over 12,000 votes.
He is the general secretary of the Delhi BJP's Poorvanchal Morcha.
The Delhi residents coming from eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand are referred to as Poorvanchalis and they are dominant in several constituencies of the national capital. Singh said that the priorities before the new government are many and they include roads, hospitals, schools, drinking water supply and cleaning of the Yamuna river.
"The basic facilities which should be provided to the people of Delhi have not been given to them.
Our efforts will be to provide facilities to the people of the national capital and to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a developed Delhi," he said.
Singh has done his Bachelor's degree in dental surgery from Magadh University, Bodh Gaya, in Bihar in 1998.
His inclusion in the Delhi Cabinet hints towards the party's political choices in Bihar which goes to polls later this year. He also served as a municipal corporation leader in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) before being fielded by the party from the Vikaspuri seat.
