New Delhi, February 20: Senior BJP leader, RSS & ABVP activist Rekha Gupta on Thursday swore in as 4th woman Chief Minister of Delhi.
As many as six Cabinet Ministers including one Deputy CM took oath as the key ministers in Rekha Gupta’s Cabinet, at the Ramlila Maidan.
The newly inducted ministers are Parvesh Verma (Dy. CM), Manjinder Singh Sirsa and Kapil Mishra took oath as cabinet ministers along with Delhi chief minister-elect Rekha Gupta today.
(Lto R): Kapil Mishra, Parvesh Sahib Singh and Manjinder Singh Sirsa will take oath as cabinet ministers in the newly formed Delhi government.
Similarly, Ashish Sood, Pankaj Kumar Singh and Ravinder Indraj Singh were sworn in as cabinet ministers in the new BJP government.
The new ministers took with Gupta in a grand ceremony, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other dignitaries.
Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma,a prominent Jat face in Delhi politics, emerged as a “giant killer” after he defeated Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal in the New Delhi constituency by 4,089 votes.
After the BJP won the Delhi assembly elections by bagging 48 out of 70 seats, Verma was considered a frontrunner for the top post. He earlier served as a Lok Sabha MP from West Delhi from 2014 to 2024.
Kapil Mishra won the Delhi assembly election from Karawal Nagar, defeating AAP's Manoj Kumar Tyagi by 23,355 votes. He had won this seat in 2015 on an AAP ticket. He was inducted into the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government as water resources minister. However, Mishra was removed from the cabinet after he accused then colleague Satyendar Jain of corruption. He contested the 2020 Delhi assembly elections as a BJP candidate from Model Town constituency, but lost to AAP’s Akhilesh Pati Tripathi. Mishra faced flak for allegedly making provocative statements in the lead-up to the February 2020 riots in northeast Delhi.
Manjinder Singh Sirsa, a senior leader of BJP won the Rajouri Garden seat in the Delhi elections, marking his comeback on the seat. Sirsa defeated Aam Aadmi party's candidate Dhanwati Chandela by a vote margin of over 18,000 votes. He also represented the constituency in the 2017 Delhi by-elections. However, in the 2020 Delhi Assembly polls, Sirsa lost to AAP Chandela from the seat.
Ashish Sood was among the frontrunners for the post of Delhi CM. Being a prominent leader in Delhi's politics, he defeated AAP's Parveen Kumar in Janakpuri by 18,766 votes. He is also the party's co-incharge in Jammu and Kashmir.
Pankaj Kumar Singh is son of former Municipal Corporation Delhi (MCD) Raja Mohan Singh. He served as a ward councillor. A dentist by profession, he has served in important positions in the MCD. Singh won his first assembly election from Vikaspuri, defeating AAP's Mahinder Yadav by nearly 13,000 votes.
Today’s Cabinet Minister, Ravinder Indraj Singh won from the Bawana assembly seat in the assembly election. He defeated AAP's Jai Bhagwan Upkar by more than 31,000 votes.
He is a member of the BJP's SC Morcha and has been working for the Dalit community for a long time.
The six ministers inducted into Rekha Gupta’s team for the first time, are said to be the key ministers to head important portfolios of the Delhi government, assay the political experts.
