Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta with Delhi BJP Chief Virendra Sachdeva dressing the media at party office, in Delhi on February 23, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
Newly elected members of the eighth legislative assembly of Delhi will take oath on Monday (February 24, 2025) when Chief Minister Rekha Gupta is scheduled to move a motion to name Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Vijender Gupta as the Speaker of the House.
The Assembly’s list of business for the three-day session shows that the 14 pending Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports on the performance of the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government will be tabled in the House on the second day.
After her first cabinet meeting on the day she was sworn in, Ms. Gupta said that her government would table the 14 CAG reports in the first session of the Assembly. The CAG reports had become a major bone of contention between the AAP and the BJP in the run up to the Delhi Assembly elections with the BJP saying that the AAP had not tabled the reports because they contained “proof of corruption”.
The AAP had retaliated that the BJP had made up the reports to score political points. On Sunday (February 23, 2025), Ms. Atishi said that she as Chief Minister had personally signed the CAG reports and submitted them to the Speaker of the previous House. “It is a routine procedure. The BJP is making it a big deal making it seem that they have presented the CAG reports. Whatever is there in the reports, it will be out in front of the people of Delhi,” Ms. Atishi said.
On Friday (February 21, 2025), the Assembly secretariat notified an order of the L-G, appointing BJP MLA Arvinder Singh Lovely as the pro-tem Speaker. Mr. Lovely, who won on a BJP ticket from Gandhinagar, was earlier a Minister in the Congress government under Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. The new members of the House will take oath before the pro-tem Speaker and Mr. Lovely will perform the duties of the Office of the Speaker from the start of the Assembly until the new Speaker is officially elected.
According to the list of business, the second day of the three day session will have Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena’s address to the House and the tabling of the 14 CAG reports. It will be followed by a discussion on the L-G’s address. The discussion on the motion of thanks will continue on the third day, February 27. The election of Deputy Speaker will be held the same day, the bulletin said.
The BJP came to power in the national capital by winning 48 out of the 70 Assembly seats. The AAP, which has had over 60 members in the House for a decade, will be in the Opposition for the first time.
Published – February 23, 2025 06:48 pm IST