The Hindu : New Delhi News : Sheila, six Ministers take oath

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New Delhi

Sheila, six Ministers take oath

Staff Reporter

Kiran Walia, a three-time MLA, is the lone new face in the Cabinet

First session of the fourth Assembly from Thursday
Election of Speaker to take place on Friday

Photo: Sandeep Saxena

New beginning: Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit with her Cabinet Ministers after the swearing in ceremony on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: Having led the Congress in Delhi to a historic third consecutive win in the Assembly elections, Sheila Dikshit was on Wednesday administered oath of office and secrecy as the Chief Minister for a record third term by the Lieutenant Governor, Tejendra Khanna, at Raj Niwas here. Besides her, six other Ministers were also sworn in.

Five Ministers from the previous Government -- Dr. A. K. Walia, Haroon Yusuf, Mangat Ram Singhal, Raj Kumar Chauhan and Arvinder Singh Lovely – retained their places in the Cabinet. Kiran Walia is the lone new face and she has come in place of Yoganand Shastri, who is now widely tipped to be the Speaker of the Assembly.

Hectic lobbying

The formation of the Cabinet had been preceded by hectic lobbying as a large number of MLAs – particularly former Ministers and three and four-time legislators – had thrown their hats in the ring. But finally, performance rather than approach appears to have mattered in the selection.

The swearing-in-ceremony was attended by a number of Members of Parliament, newly elected Members of the Legislative Assembly, former Union Ministers, senior bureaucrats and other eminent persons.

After the ceremony, Ms Dikshit convened the first meeting of her new Cabinet in which she declared that all her ministerial colleagues had resolved to strive hard to fulfil the aspirations of people who have given a resounding mandate to the Congress. The party had won 43 seats in the 70-member House.

“People have reposed faith in our Government and have given us an opportunity for the third consecutive time,” she said.

The Cabinet on its part described the mandate as “historic” and said the victory had reflected on the policies and programmes of the Chief Minister.

Ms. Dikshit declared that the Cabinet had decided to recommend to the Lieutenant Governor to convene the first session of the fourth Legislative Assembly from Thursday (December18) to December 23.

Pro-tem Speaker

The Chief Minister said that Pro-tem Speaker Jagdish Mukhi would administer oath of membership to the newly elected members. As a senior member, Prof. Mukhi was also administered oath as Pro-tem Speaker by the Lieutenant Governor.

The election of Speaker would take place on December 19 at 2 p.m. and the Lieutenant Governor would deliver his address to the House on December 22 at 11 a.m.

The following day, the House would move and pass a Motion of Thanks on the Lieutenant Governor’s address.

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