New Delhi: With Chaudhary Brahm Prakash of the Indian National congress being the youngest Chief Minister of Delhi at the age of 34, to the Aam Aadmi Party forming government in Delhi within the shortest span of time since its formation, here are some of the several lesser-known facts about the national capital's electoral history.
Only seven chief ministers have ruled Delhi in its political history.
Chaudhary Brahm Prakash was the first-ever Chief Minister of Delhi who served the term from 1952 to 1955.
He was succeeded by GN Singh, a member of the Indian National Congress as well. His term as the second Chief Minister of Delhi was for one year only from 1955 to 1956. After his tenure came to an end, a parliamentary bill was passed whereby Delhi was made a union territory. Subsequently, no one was appointed as the next chief minister of Delhi until 1 January 1993.
Madan Lal Khurana, the third Chief Minister of Delhi, and a Bhartiya Janata Party leader served from 1993 till 1996.
Sahib Singh Verma became the next Chief Minister of Delhi during 1996 after Madan Lal Khurana got tied up in a corruption-related controversy. Even when Khurana received acquittal from the courts, Verma was allowed to continue as the CM by the BJP and this made Khurana his major political rival.
The first woman to become the Chief Minister of Delhi in 1998 was Sushma Swaraj. One of the most well-known personalities in the Indian political domain, Swaraj left her position as a minister in the union cabinet to serve as the Delhi CM. However, her tenure as CM was far from ideal and the party lost owing to factors such as inflation and continually increasing prices.
Elected for the first time on 3rd December 1998, Sheila Dikshit (INC) has been the longest-serving CM of Delhi. She continued her term from 1998 to 2013. Her tenure as Delhi CM was beset with a number of issues such as corruption accusations during the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Her remarks and inept handling of the situation post-Nirbhaya gang-rape incident, also led to her criticism by her political opponents on grounds of insensitivity towards women.
Defeating the longest-serving Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit by a margin of 25,864 votes, Arvind Kejriwal one of the founding members of the Aam Aadmi Party served as the Chief Minister from 28 December 2013 to 14 February 2014 for 49 days after which a year under President's rule in Delhi followed. In February 2015 the Aam Aadmi Party was voted in with a large majority, and Kejriwal has served as Delhi's chief minister ever since.
Also, read: Delhi polls: A battle between two ideologies?
