DEBUTANT legislator Rekha Gupta was sworn in as Delhi Chief Minister along with six Ministers on Thursday in a grand show of strength full of colour and spectacle to mark the BJP’s return to power in the city after more than 26 years. The ceremony at the sprawling Ramlila Ground was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the top BJP brass and NDA leaders. Gupta is Delhi’s fourth woman Chief Minister after her party’s Sushma Swaraj, the Congress’ Sheila Dikshit and AAP’s Atishi. The 50-year-old MLA from Shalimar Bagh, who took charge of her office at the Delhi Secretariatintheafternoon, 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.

 

The former student leader presides over an all-male Cabinet that includes giant slayer Parvesh Verma, who defeatedArvindKejriwalinthe elections,Hindutvaposterboy KapilMishraandtheBJP’sSikh face Manjinder Singh Sirsa. Besides,AshishSood,Ravinder Indraj Singhand Pankaj Singh were also administered the oath of office by Lt Governor V K Saxena. All the ministers took oath in Hindi, except for Sirsa who did so in Punjabi. About 50,000 people crammed into the historic ground, which has seen many a rally andprotestthroughthe decades, festooned with marigoldflowersandbuntings. 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”. Thehighonopticseventwas attendedbyChiefMinistersof States ruled by the BJP and its NDA allies -- Maharashtra’s Devendra Fadnavis, Andhra Pradesh’sChandrababuNaidu, 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. Aftertheceremony, thenew cabinet and other dignitaries headed for lunch at a luxury hotel in the city. The coming days will likely be politically fraught with the AAP -- which cedes control of the city after 10 successive years, first under Arvind KejriwalandthenAtishi--and BJPfacingoffonvariousissues. On Thursday, ahead of her swearing in, Gupta assured that her government will fulfill its promise of providing Rs 2,500 monthly assistance to eligiblewomenandaddedthat the AAP would be held accountableforitsactionsduring its 10-year rule. The first installment of the monthly support would be credited to eligible women’s accounts by International Women’s Day on March 8, Gupta told reporters outside her residence.

 

Ahead of the polls, the BJP’s manifesto aimed to outmatch theAAP’sannouncementofRs 2,100 monthly support if it came to power. “They will have to give an account for each and every penny to the people,” she said about the AAP. “Fulfilling the dream of PrimeMinisterNarendraModi is the responsibility of all 48 BJP MLAs in the capital,” she added. Among the first ports of call of Delhi’snew government will be the Yamuna, BJP leaders said. The cleaning oftheYamuna was a major emotive issue in the run-up to the election. While the BJP cornered the AAP over failing to clean the river in its decade-long rule, Kejriwal alleged that the BJPled Haryana government was polluting the river with “poisonous ammonia”. InhisspeechduringtheBJP’s victory celebrations after the results were declared on February 8, the prime minister had reaffirmed his commitment to cleaning the river.

 

PEOPLE OF DELHI ENDED REIGN OF DECEIT AND BREACHOFPROMISE,CHOSEN BJP, SAYS AMIT SHAH: THEBJPGovernmentinDelhi will make the city the best capital of the world by making it clean, beautiful and prosperous, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday, ashecongratulatednewChief MinisterRekhaGupta andher ministerial colleagues fortaking oath of office. Referringtothedefeatofthe Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the recent assembly elections, Shah also 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. “Today, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to Mrs. @gupta_rekha ji and all other ministers on taking oath as Chief Minister in the newly formed BJP government. “The vision of a developed Delhi created by Prime MinisterShri@narendramodi for thewelfare of thedeprived, women, youth and poor of Delhiwilldefinitelycometrue under the able leadership of all of you,” he wrote on ‘X’ in Hindi. The senior BJP leader saidthepartygovernmentwill make Delhi the best capital of the world by making it clean, beautiful and prosperous.

 

 

CONGRATULATING Rekha Gupta on taking oath as Delhi’s Chief Minister, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said she has risen from the grassroots and expressed confidence that she will work for the city’s development with full vigour. Modi said in a congratulatory message, “She has risen from the grassroots, being active in campus politics, State organisation, municipal administration and now MLA as well as Chief Minister.”