NEW DELHI: The new Delhi government will have six cabinet ministers, including Parvesh Verma who defeated AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal in the recent Assembly polls, who will be administered the oath of office on Thursday afternoon, officials said.
A Union Home Ministry notification stated that the President, on the advice of Chief Minister-designate Rekha Gupta, appointed BJP MLAs Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, Ashish Sood, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Ravinder Indraj, Kapil Mishra and Pankaj Kumar Singh as ministers of the Delhi government.
The new ministers will take oath along with CM-designate Gupta in a grand ceremony to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other dignitaries at Ramlila Maidan later in the day.
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.
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.