A member of India’s ruling Hindu-nationalist party has been sworn in as chief minister of Delhi, handing the party control of the capital for the first time in decades after landslide elections.
Rekha Gupta, 50, of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was sworn in as the top official of the Indian capital on Thursday, becoming the fourth woman to hold the post of the sprawling megacity of more than 30 million people.
“I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of the office,” Gupta said while taking the oath of office in front of a crowd of cheering supporters.
Gupta, who has a law degree and began her career in student politics in the city, was selected for the post by party members late on Wednesday.
This month, the BJP won most of the seats in the high-stakes Delhi polls for the first time in 27 years. After taking 48 seats in the 70-member local assembly, the party ousted Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party, which won 22 seats.
The BJP is in government nationally but has not controlled the local legislature in Delhi since 1998, so its sweeping victory was both symbolic and strategically important.
Kejriwal had governed Delhi for much of the past decade and was a prominent critic of Modi.
Kejriwal rode to power as an anticorruption crusader but spent several months behind bars last year over accusations his party took kickbacks in exchange for liquor licences. He has denied wrongdoing and characterised the charges as a political witch-hunt by Modi’s government.
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