New Delhi: The first session of the Delhi Assembly commenced on Monday, with BJP MLA Arvinder Singh Lovely taking the oath as Protem Speaker at Raj Niwas. The oath was administered by Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena. Following this, the election of the Speaker will take place at 2 pm.
Lovely, who is one of the senior-most legislators of the House, will administer the oath to the newly elected MLAs. Later in the day, the election of the new Speaker will be held with BJP MLA Vijender Gupta likely to be chosen for the post. The BJP ended the decade-long rule of the AAP in Delhi, winning 48 of the 70 seats in the February 5 Assembly elections. The Opposition AAP has 22 MLAs in the House.
AAP MLAs have unanimously elected former Delhi chief minister Atishi as Leader of Opposition in the Assembly. Commenting on the start of the session, Delhi minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said, "A new chapter will be written today. AAP-DA has done the work of spoiling Delhi for the last 12 years. Today, we have the opportunity to take Delhi towards a Viksit Delhi... Today, the CAG report will also be tabled, and it will reveal the corruption done by Arvind Kejriwal for the last 3 years."
Delhi Minister Kapil Mishra also expressed his views, calling the day historic. "It is a historic day today. The people who cheated Delhi have understood that the real owner is only the public. Corruption has a limited time, and after that, it is over. Under the leadership of CM Rekha Gupta, such a government has come to Delhi that will work for the people of Delhi..."
Expressing his views, Delhi minister Ashish Sood said, "BJP has come to power after 27 years. Our first priority will be to provide the people of Delhi with clean water, better sewage, better roads, clean air...For the last 10 years, the issue of water was like a nightmare for the people of Delhi." Meanwhile, ahead of the first session of the eighth legislative assembly of New Delhi, people gathered outside newly elected CM Rekha Gupta's residence to greet her on Monday morning.
Gupta was sworn in as the Chief Minister on Thursday. Hours later, she chaired her cabinet's first meeting and announced two major decisions: the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat scheme with a Rs 5 lakh top-up and the tabling of 14 pending CAG reports in the Assembly's first session.
According to the Delhi Assembly bulletin, Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena will address the assembly on February 25, following which the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports will be tabled.
Later that day, the assembly will open the floor for the motion of thanks on the LG's address. On February 26, the discussion on the motion of thanks will begin at 11:00 am, after which the election of the deputy speaker of the Delhi Assembly will take place.
