At the oath-taking ceremony of the Delhi CM and the Council of Ministers at Ramlila Maidan Thursday, top guns of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were present including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, chief ministers of states led by the party and its alliance partners.
Among the high-profile political dignitaries, a face that did not go unnoticed was that of Swati Maliwal, the AAP’s Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha. All other AAP leaders skipped the ceremony. Delhi Congress Chief Devender Yadav was also seen on stage, sitting next to Maliwal.
Maliwal told the media, “I extend my greetings to CM Rekha Gupta ji. The people of Delhi have chosen her with great expectations and I am hopeful that she will meet them.” She also said the CAG reports should be tabled in the Assembly.
Maliwal served as the Chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) for seven years till she was nominated as Rajya Sabha MP in January 2024. She was the youngest member of Arvind Kejriwal’s NGO, Parivartan.
In May last year, she ended her long association with Kejriwal in an acrimonious and very public parting, after she alleged his aide Bibhav Kumar assaulted her. The AAP hit back, saying she was acting at the BJP’s behest.
Months before the Assembly elections, she had been taking rounds of the Capital to “examine the truth” behind the AAP government’s claims of providing “world-class facilities”.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Congress chief also congratulated the newly appointed Chief Minister. “Delhi Congress will extend its full co-operation and support to the new government if it immediately gets down to repair the incalculable damage done to civic infrastructure by Kejriwal and his government, who came to power as a pauper, but went back after swindling taxpayers’ money for his own corruption and comfort.”
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Yadav also said Gupta should look at former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit as a role model.
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