New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi Chief Minister-designate Atishi will take the oath of office on Saturday, September 21, the party said. She will be the third woman chief minister of the national capital after Congress Party's Sheila Dixit and BJP's Sushma Swaraj.
The ruling AAP in Delhi is already into its fourth year of power, and Atishi will lead the government for the remaining term of the party after AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal officially stepped down from his chief ministerial position on September 17.
Initially, the AAP announced that Atishi would take the oath during a special Assembly session on September 26-27, but it later accepted September 21 as the swearing-in date following a proposal by Delhi's Lieutenant Governor. According to an India Today report, AAP had initially planned that only Atishi would be sworn in, but it was later decided that her council of ministers would also take the oath.
Addressing a press conference, she urged the public to refrain from congratulating her for the CM post that she is going to take over since it comes after regretful and sorrowful happenings involving Kejriwal's resignation. She vowed that she would work to bring back Kejriwal as Chief Minister of Delhi in the upcoming assembly polls. The national capital will go to polls in February next year.
AAP leaders Gopal Rai, Kailash Gehlot, Saurabh Bharadwaj, and Imran Hussain, who were ministers in the previous Kejriwal government, will be retained and two party MLAs will also be inducted into the new Cabinet, media reports said.
Atishi, who had been a key member of the Manifesto Drafting Committee of the AAP for the 2013 Assembly election and also served as a party spokesperson, joined the party at the time of its inception. Contesting from the Kalkaji constituency, she won over BJP candidate Dharambir Singh by 11,422 votes in the 2020 Delhi Legislative Assembly election.
