The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Delhi led by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta officially took charge on Thursday with the swearing-in of the CM and six cabinet portfolios followed by the allocation of portfolios.
As per the distribution of portfolios, the Chief Minister has kept a majority of the departments under her charge, a change from the erstwhile AAP administration where Arvind Kejriwal as Chief Minister only briefly headed the Delhi Jal Board but never handled a ministry.
The fresh Cabinet has representation from various caste groups -- the Cabinet comprises a Jat, a Brahmin, a Purvanchali, a Sikh and a Dalit besides the CM who hails from the Vaishya community and is the second woman leader from the BJP to be appointed as chief minister of Delhi.
Delhi Cabinet List: Full list of Ministers
Rekha Gupta: Chief Minister; Finance, Planning, GAD, WCD, Services, Revenue, Land & Building, I&PR, Vigilance, AR. Any other department not allocated to other ministers
Parvesh Verma: PWD, Water, Legislative Affairs, Water, Irrigation, Flood Control and Gurdwara elections
Manjinder Singh Sirsa: Food & Supplies, Forest & Environment, Industries
Ravindra Kumar Indraj: Social Welfare, SC & ST Welfare, Cooperative, Elections
Kapil Mishra: Law & Justice, Labour Department, Employment Department, Development, Art & Culture, Language Department, Tourism Department
Ashish Sood: Home, Power, Education, Higher Education, Urban Development and Training and Technical Education.
Pankaj Kumar Singh: Health and Family Welfare, Transport, Information Technology.
The list of ministers includes New Delhi MLA Parvesh Verma who defeated former Chief Minister and sitting MLA Arvind Kejriwal from the seat, earning himself the 'giant-killer' moniker. The list also includes Rajouri Garden MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Bawana MLA Ravindra Kumar Indraj, Karawal Nagar MLA Kapil Mishra, Janakpuri MLA Ashish Sood and Pankaj Kumar Singh from Vikaspuri.
An advocate from Shalimar Bagh, Rekha Gupta is an old RSS hand who traces her origins to Delhi's student politics as a member of the ABVP. She is only the second woman chief minister to be appointed to the post by the BJP and succeeds Sushma Swaraj who was the BJP leader on the post.
The new BJP government in the capital will have much to prove owing to its promise of change that brought down the AAP government in Delhi. In the elections held on February 4, the BJP bagged 48 out of the 70 seats in the capital while the AAP was reduced to 22 seats.
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