Delhi CM-designate Rekha Gupta meets LG, stakes claim to form govt

BJP MLA and Chief Minister-designate Rekha Gupta met Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena Wednesday evening and staked claim to form government in the national capital.

She was accompanied by state BJP observers Ravi Shankar Prasad and OP Dhankar along with city BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, and Delhi MPs including Bansuri Swaraj, Praveen Khandelwal and Kamaljeet Sehrawat. 

BJP national vice-president Baijayant Jay Panda was also present at the Raj Niwas.

Gupta, 50, was chosen as the Leader of the House in the Delhi Assembly during a BJP legislature party meeting on Thursday. 

 

A former Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) president and civic body councilor, she is set to become the fourth woman Chief Minister of Delhi after Sushma Swaraj, Sheila Dikshit, and Atishi.

The new BJP government, led by Gupta, will be sworn in at a grand ceremony at the Ramlila Maidan on Thursday afternoon in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other dignitaries.

She will also be the fourth Chief Minister from the BJP in Delhi after Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma, and Sushma Swaraj. Notably, Gupta is going to be the only incumbent woman chief minister in any BJP-ruled states.

In the recently concluded 70-member Delhi Assembly elections, the BJP secured a decisive victory with 48 seats, ending the AAP's decade-long rule in the capital.  Also Read: Delhi CM oath ceremony LIVE    LG Saxena invites BJP's Rekha Gupta to form govt 

Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has invited the BJP's CM-designate Rekha Gupta to form a new government after she staked claim for it.

 

BJP sources said besides Gupta, six newly elected MLAs -- Parvesh Verma who defeated AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal from 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. 

The official X account of the Delhi LG said, "Leader of the BJP Legislative Party in the Delhi Legislative Assembly Rekha Gupta called on LG V K Saxena at Raj Niwas and staked her claim to form the new Government of NCT of Delhi."

 

"The LG accepted the claim and invited her to form the new government, it added.