Rekha Gupta Sworn In As 9th Delhi CM; 6 Ministers Take Oath Of Office

Rekha Gupta, a first-time lawmaker, was sworn in as the Delhi chief minister on Thursday at Ramlila Maidan at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah among other top National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders, 12 days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was voted back to power in the national capital after 27 years.

- Alok KN Mishra

NEW DELHI:

Six MLAs, Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, who defeated former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Ashish Sood, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Ravinder Indraj Singh, Kapil Mishra, and Pankaj Singh were also sworn in as ministers into Gupta's Cabinet.

Lieutenant governor of Delhi Vinai Kumar Saxena administered oath of office and secrecy to the CM and the ministers at the function.

Earlier in the day, President Droupadi Murmu appointed Gupta as the chief minister of Delhi and other six MLAs as ministers in Delhi according to the advice of the CM.

The swearing-in ceremony was a grand show of strength by the NDA. Along with PM Modi and Shah, it was attended by NDA chief ministers, spiritual leaders from different communities, representatives from various citizens groups such as auto drivers, sanitation workers, RWA members, various communities belonging to the OBC category, slum dwellers and roadside vendors.

Gupta won from the Shalimar Bagh constituency by 29,595 votes after defeating Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Bandana Kumari.

The results of the assembly elections were declared on February 8. The BJP won 48 seats out of the 70 total seats while AAP won 22 seats.