Rekha Gupta, a first-time MLA from Shalimar Bagh, was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Delhi along with six cabinet colleagues at a grand ceremony at Ramlila Maidan on Thursday, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior Union ministers, and NDA leaders.
After Gupta, New Delhi MLA Pravesh Verma, Janakpuri MLA Ashish Sood, Rajouri Garden MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Bawana MLA Ravindra Indraraj Singh, Karawal Nagar MLA Kapil Sharma and Indrapuri MLA Pankaj Kumar Singh also took the oath as Cabinet ministers in the presence of Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena.
The selection of Delhi CM and Cabinet ministers indicates that the BJP top brass has given adequate representation to different castes that matter in the national capital.
While Gupta, whose appointment as the fourth woman CM of Delhi signifies the party’s belief in nari shakti, represents the Baniya community, which has a sizeable population in the national capital, Pravesh Verma is a Jat, a community with influence in the city and the adjoining states of Haryana, Rajasthan, and western Uttar Pradesh. Ashish Sood is the Punjabi face of the party, while Manjinder Singh Sirsa represents the Sikh community.
Kapil Mishra, who switched to the BJP from the AAP, is a Brahmin by caste. Ravindra Indraraj Singh, a Dalit who won from the reserved constituency of Bawana, and Pankaj Kumar Singh, a Rajput and a dentist by profession, have been included in the Cabinet. Pankaj’s selection is also seen as recognition of his Bihar roots, given that Purvanchali voters backed the BJP in large numbers this time, helping the party secure 48 out of 70 assembly seats.
The choice of ministerial berths also signals that the BJP has decided to move away from old party leaders and give representation to new faces to energize the party structure in Delhi, which has remained a weak point for more than two decades. This shift comes despite Narendra Modi and Amit Shah successfully expanding the saffron party’s presence in other regions of the country that were previously less receptive to Hindutva politics since they came to power in 2014.
The party is coming to power after 27 years.
The portfolio allocation for the Delhi ministers will be announced later.
At the Ramlila Maidan ceremony, which turned into a show of strength for the party, top Union ministers like Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, NDA leaders like the Andhra Pradesh chief minister, and BJP state chief ministers like Mohan Yadav from Madhya Pradesh were also present.
The eleven-day-long suspense over government formation in Delhi, after the Assembly results were announced on February 8, ending a decade-long AAP regime, ended on Wednesday when the BJP legislature party elected Shalimar Bagh MLA Rekha Gupta as their leader to become Delhi’s CM.
She is the fourth woman chief minister of Delhi and the second from the BJP after Sushma Swaraj.
Modi congratulated Gupta after her swearing-in ceremony.
“She has risen from the grassroots, being active in campus politics, state organisation, municipal administration and now MLA as well as Chief Minister,” PM Modi said in his congratulatory message.
“I am confident she will work for Delhi’s development with full vigour. My best wishes to her for a fruitful tenure,” he wished.
The newly appointed CM also thanked the Prime Minister and the central leadership for entrusting her with this responsibility but described the announcement as nothing short of a miracle.
Gupta vowed to hold corrupt officials accountable for every rupee misused.
“It is a miracle, it is a new motivation and a new chapter. If I can be the CM, this means ways are open for all the women… Anyone who has been corrupt will have to give an account of each and every rupee,” she told reporters ahead of the swearing-in ceremony.
Her Cabinet colleague Manjinder Singh Sirsa stated that this is a responsibility to implement the vision of PM Modi. “..We have been given an opportunity to be a part of the team – to realise the dream of PM Modi to make this a ‘Viksit Dilli’… We have to make Delhi happy and new once again with clean water and air. We have to clean river Yamuna,” he said.