BJP’s first-time MLA from Shalimar Bagh, Rekha Gupta, has become the ninth chief minister of Delhi. She is the fourth woman chief minister of the national capital after Sushma Swaraj, Sheila Dikshit and Atishi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with scores of other BJP and NDA leaders were present at the oath-taking ceremony organised in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan. Six leaders from Delhi BJP also took oath as ministers of the Cabinet alongside Gupta. These are: Parvesh Verma, Ashish Sood, Pankaj Singh, Manjinder Sirsa, Kapil Mishra, and Ravinder Indraj.
Among those who attended the event were chief ministers of states ruled by the BJP and its NDA allies – Maharashtra’s Devendra Fadnavis, Andhra Pradesh’s Chandrababu Naidu, Goa’s Pramod Sawant, Haryana’s Nayab Singh Saini and Meghalaya’s Conrad Sangma.
The BJP unseated the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which made a remarkable debut in politics in 2013, upsetting the three-term incumbent government led by Sheila Dikshit of the Congress. Dikshit had become the chief minister in 1998, when the Congress last won a Delhi election, defeating the BJP.
The selection of Gupta, who will be the only woman chief minister among the states being ruled by the BJP or in coalition with its allies at present, is being seen as efforts by the BJP to send a message to its women voter base. Gupta will now be the second woman chief minister in the country after TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee
Ahead of taking the oath, Rekha Gupta said that the BJP government would fulfil its poll promise of providing Rs 2,500 monthly financial assistance to women. The first instalment of the monthly support would be credited to their accounts by March 8, she added.
“Fulfilling the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the responsibility of all 48 BJP MLAs in the capital. We will definitely fulfill all our promises, including financial support for women. Women will 100 per cent get monetary support into their accounts by March 8,” she said. March 8 is observed as the International Women’s Day.
With inputs from agencies
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