First session of Delhi legislative Assembly begins today, MLAs to take oath

The first session of the eighth legislative assembly of Delhi will begin today. Chief Minister Rekha Gupta is set to move a motion to nominate Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Vijender Gupta as the Speaker of the House.

The election of the legislative assembly speaker will be held at 2:00 PM, while the newly elected MLAs will participate in the oath-taking ceremony at 11:00 in the morning.

In the meantime, Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena has appointed BJP leader Arvinder Singh Lovely as the protem speaker.

According to the Delhi Assembly bulletin, Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena will address the assembly on February 25, following which the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports will be tabled. Later that day, the assembly will open the floor for the motion of thanks on the LG's address. On February 26, the discussion on the motion of thanks will begin at 11:00 AM, after which the election of the Deputy Speaker of the Delhi Assembly will take place.

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Sunday announced that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports would be tabled at the three-day assembly session.

The Chief Minister accused the previous government of "misusing" people's "hard-earned" money and said that they would have to account for every penny.

"We remain true to the commitments we made for Delhi and they will be fulfilled," Gupta added.

"The most important thing is going to come. We said that we should put the CAG report on the House table in the first session. This is people's hard-earned money, which the previous government misused. They will have to account for each penny before the people," CM Gupta said in a presser.

Gupta was sworn in as the Chief Minister on Thursday. Hours later, she chaired her cabinet's first meeting and announced two major decisions: the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat scheme with a Rs 5 lakh top-up and the tabling of 14 pending CAG reports in the Assembly's first session.

Meanwhile, Former Chief Minister Atishi was elected as the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Delhi legislative assembly. She was selected as LoP during a meeting of AAP MLAs. Senior AAP leader Gopal Rai made the announcement during a press briefing following the meeting.

The BJP came to power in the national capital after 27 years by winning 48 out of the 70 Assembly seats. The AAP, which has had over 60 members in the House for a decade, will be in the Opposition for the first time.