Chief Minister-designate Rekha Gupta and her Council of Ministers will take oath at the Ramlila Maidan on Thursday afternoon in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, marking a return of the BJP in Delhi after 26 years.
Gupta, 50, was chosen as Leader of the House in the newly constituted 8th Delhi Assembly, in a meeting of the BJP legislature party on Wednesday.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena invited Gupta to form the new government after she staked claim for it late Wednesday evening at Raj Niwas. She will become the 9th Chief Minister of Delhi after the administration of oath by the LG.
Besides Gupta, six newly elected MLAs -- Parvesh Verma who defeated AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal from the New Delhi seat, Ashish Sood, Pankaj Singh, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Kapil Mishra and Ravinder Indraj -- will take oath as members of the new Council of Ministers, according to a government notification.
The new Council of Ministers headed by Gupta is likely to hold its first meeting at the Delhi Secretariat around 3 pm and could implement the Mahila Samriddhi Yojna, under which eligible women will get a monthly payment of Rs 2,500, and Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme, party sources claimed.
The BJP ended a decade-long rule of Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP in Delhi, winning 48 of the 70 seats in the Assembly polls held on February 5. The BJP last had power in Delhi way back in 1993-98.
First-time MLA Gupta having risen through the ranks of the BJP, shares close ties with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, party leaders said.
A former Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) president and civic body councillor, Gupta is set to become the fourth woman chief minister of Delhi after Sushma Swaraj, Sheila Dikshit, and Atishi.
She will also be the fourth BJP chief minister of Delhi after Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma and Sushma Swaraj. She has the distinction of currently being the only woman CM in all the BJP-ruled states.
She won the Shalimar Bagh seat defeating AAP candidate Bandana Kumari by over 29,000 votes in the Delhi Assembly polls earlier this month.
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