AAP’s Atishi takes oath as Delhi’s chief minister
In her first address after taking the oath, Atishi urged people of Delhi to re-elect her predecessor to the top office
Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi was sworn in as the eighth chief minister of Delhi on Saturday evening — a day after the President accepted the resignation of former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal — a change of guard the party has insisted is temporary so that its chief can rebut the “false cases” against him by demonstrating public support for his return when elections are held next.
Atishi became Delhi’s third woman chief minister as she was administered oath of office along with five ministers by lieutenant governor VK Saxena at Raj Niwas around 4.30pm. AAP chief Kejriwal, and senior functionaries of the party were present at the ceremony.
Four of the five ministers — Saurabh Bharadwaj, Kailash Gahlot, Gopal Rai, and Imran Hussain — were part of the Kejriwal cabinet. The new entrant is Mukesh Ahlawat, a first-time MLA and the party’s Dalit face.
In her first address after taking the oath, Atishi urged people of Delhi to re-elect her predecessor to the top office.
“It is an emotional moment for me as he will not be the chief minister. He understood the pain of every person. He ensured free treatment for people, worked to improve the lives of the students of government schools, brought the provision of free bus rides for women,” she said, before lashing out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for “hatching a conspiracy” against the AAP chief by naming him in a “false case”.
“The BJP implicated him in a false case and did everything to break him,” the chief minister said while referring to Kejriwal as her “guru” and thanking him for giving her the opportunity. Atishi hailed Kejriwal for “setting an example in morality” by stepping down as the CM despite being granted bail in the excise policy case by the Supreme Court.
This is the first time that Kejriwal does not hold the topmost government position since 2013, the year AAP scripted one of India’s most notable political upsets as a year-old party that emerged with the largest number of seats in Delhi assembly elections. The party did not have a majority on its own and eventually decided to dissolve the assembly, a move that paid a historic political dividend when the party won 67 of 70 seats in 2015.
It scored a stunning victory again in 2020 by winning 62 of the 70 seats, but its influence has been limited to the state elections, with party having not won a single Lok Sabha seat from Delhi’s seven parliamentary constituencies.
Atishi was picked as the chief minister-designate on Tuesday. The oath ceremony capped a brief upheaval in the Capital following Kejriwal’s announcement of resignation, a few days after his six-month-long pre-trial incarceration for alleged irregularities in the excise policy ended with a Supreme Court order that lambasted federal agencies for the arrest. Kejriwal said that he will seek the “certificate of honesty” from the people and will occupy the CM’s chair only after he is re-elected as the chief minister.
After being administered the oath to the office, Atishi was seen touching the feet of Kejriwal to seek his blessing. The CM’s parents, Union minister and East Delhi MP Harsh Malhotra, former deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Delhi assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, leader of opposition in the Delhi assembly Vijender Gupta, Delhi Police commissioner Sanjay Arora, Delhi MPs Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and Manoj Tiwari were in attendance.
LG Saxena and Kejriwal, who have been often engaged in what has been a bitter political fight in matters of policy and administration, were seen shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries. Kejriwal and BJP leader Vijender Gupta too engaged in long, cheerful exchanges after the ceremony.
Atishi is likely to hold her first cabinet meeting on Monday, the first working day after taking over as the CM. A key matter likely to be taken up by the government soon includes the rolling out the ₹1,000 per month financial assistance scheme for eligible women of Delhi. The draft of the scheme has been prepared by the women and child development department and will now be put before the cabinet.
To be sure, the scheme will require the LG’s approval.
Atishi will likely prove majority on the floor of the Delhi assembly which begins its session on September 26.
Atishi handled several key departments such as finance, Public Works Department, education, revenue, and vigilance. She was appointed minister after Sisodia resigned as deputy CM post his arrest in 2023.
In the last cabinet, Bharadwaj, a third-term MLA from Greater Kailash and second-time minister, handled health, industry, urban development, and tourism-art-culture; Gahlot who has been a minister since 2017, handled transport, home, information technology, administrative reforms; Rai, who has been a minister since 2015, handled environment, development and general administration; while Hussain, who was a minister since 2015, handled food and civil supplies and elections.
While allocating portfolios, Atishi retained 13 departments for herself, which she handled in the Kejriwal cabinet. Similarly, the departments handled by Bharadwaj, Gahlot, Rai and Hussain have been re-allocated to them.
Meanwhile, Ahlawat, has been allocated SC & ST department, gurudwara elections, land & building, labour, and employment. All these departments were with Raaj Kumar Anand in the Kejriwal cabinet. Anand resigned as minister in April citing political differences with the AAP leadership, and later joined the BSP following which he was disqualified from the Delhi assembly under anti-defection laws.
The party on Saturday said that Kejriwal will speak at “Janta Ki Adalat” at Jantar Mantar on Sunday morning, where people from different parts of the city are expected to turn up. AAP leader Dilip Pandey on Saturday said that “Kejriwal is honest and the people of Delhi will put their stamp on it in Janta Ki Adalat”.
An array of important projects have been in limbo due to a lack of consensus between the LG and the government, and the delay in the formation of the Standing Committee, which holds the purse strings of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
At the press conference on Saturday, Atishi alleged that the BJP has tried everything to stop the work in Delhi. “For the next four months, my work will be to take care of the people of Delhi. BJP has tried everything from jailing AAP leaders and stopping the work of development in Delhi. BJP and LG stopped the road work, stopped medicines from reaching the hospitals, tests in mohalla clinics... They stopped the garbage collection but I promise you... now that Kejriwal is out of jail, all these works will get completed,” she added.
Atishi is the third woman chief minister of Delhi after Sushma Swaraj and Sheila Dikshit, and only the second sitting woman chief minister in India alongside Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal.
Leader of the opposition in the Delhi assembly Vijender Gupta said Atishi’s ideology was “leftist”, which would “hardly prove beneficial” for the Capital.
“In the next few months, after the monsoon rains and waterlogging-related deaths, Delhi’s pollution levels are expected to rise again, forcing residents to breathe toxic air. Smoke from burning stubble, dust from the roads, emissions from dilapidated buses, and the fumes from vehicles driven by citizens with no choice but to use their own transport, along with heaps of garbage and foul smells, may once again force people to live in hellish conditions. As usual, AAP will make temporary, superficial measures on paper and once again use corruption as a means to profit,” said Gupta.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said Atishi was unsuccessful as a minister, and the people of Delhi have no expectations from her government. “With Atishi as the new CM, only the face of the AAP government has changed, not the character. Since the government remains the same, corruption, irresponsibility, and chaos will persist. If Atishi wants to offer a changed government, she should first open former CM Kejriwal’s luxurious bungalow, built at the cost of over ₹60 crore during the pandemic, to the public,” said Sachdeva.