Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rekha Gupta on Thursday took oath as the chief minister of Delhi.

Gupta, the first chief minister of the national capital from the Hindutva party in 26 years, was administered the oath of office by Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena.

Six other BJP MLAs – Parvesh Verma, Kapil Mishra, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Ravinder Indraj Singh, Ashish Sood and Pankaj Kumar Singh – were sworn in as ministers.

The ceremony at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, several BJP chief ministers and leaders of the National Democratic Alliance, among others.

The party had announced on Wednesday evening that Gupta will become the chief minister. Hours later, she met the lieutenant governor and staked her claim to form the government.

The BJP defeated the Aam Aadmi Party in the polls on February 8. Polling was held on February 5.

Gupta had defeated AAP’s Bandana Kumari and Congress’s Parveen Kumar Jain by a margin of 29,595 votes in the Shalimar Bagh constituency.

While the Hindutva party won in 48 constituencies, the Aam Aadmi Party bagged 21 seats. The halfway mark to gain a majority in the 70-member Assembly is 36 seats.

The BJP won 45.8% of the votes ahead of the AAP’s 43.8% vote share. While the Congress failed to win a seat, its vote share increased to 6.4% from 4.3% five years ago.

The Aam Aadmi Party was in power in the national capital since 2013, except for a year of president’s rule between 2014 and 2015.

Also read: