Atishi to take oath as Delhi Chief Minister on September 21

Atishi, the 43-year-old Aam Aadmi Party leader, is set to take oath as Chief Minister of Delhi on September 21, Saturday, the party said.

“Atishi will take oath as the Chief Minister of Delhi on September 21, other ministers will also take their oaths alongside her,” the AAP in its statement on Thursday said. This development comes two days after Atishi said she is happy about the trust posed in her by the outgoing CM Arvind Kejriwal but also sad that he has resigned from his post.

Atishi in a press conference 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 resignation of Delhi CM. She vowed that she will work to bring back Arvind Kejriwal as Chief Minister of Delhi in the upcoming the assembly polls. The national capital will go to polls in February next year.

“First of all, I would like to thank the popular CM of Delhi, AAP national convener, and my guru – Arvind Kejriwal. He gave me such a huge responsibility and trusted me for it. This can be done only in AAP, only under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal, that a first-time politician becomes the CM of a state. I come from an ordinary family. Had I been in any other party, perhaps I would not have been given even an election ticket,” ANI quoted Atishi as saying.

Atishi, who served as Advisor to Manish Sisodia when he was Education Minister and later as Education Minister, will be the third woman chief minister of the national capital after Sushma Swaraj and Sheila Dikshit.

She is a prominent AAP leader and served as Advisor to Manish Sisodia when he was Education Minister. AAP leaders said she played a pivotal role in revamping the state of education in government-run schools in the national capital.

Atishi, who had been 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.

The AAP leader, served as the only woman Cabinet Minister in Delhi Government, who was inducted into the Cabinet in March 2023 with Saurabh Bharadwaj. This development came after Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was arrested last year in the excise policy case and subsequently resigned.