On the 16th of February, Arvind Kejriwal, the President of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP,) took the oath of office as the Chief Minister of Delhi.
Mr. Kejriwal, who kept the oath taking ceremony open specifically for the citizens and leaders of Delhi, invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, Mr. Modi could not attend the oath taking ceremony due to official meetings and prior commitments.
In a tweet, PM Modi congratulated Mr. Kejriwal and his Party leaders for their win and oath taking ceremony. Arvind Kejriwal responded to the tweet and said, “Thank you for the warm wishes sir. I wish you could come today, but I understand you were busy. We must now work together towards making Delhi a city of pride for all Indians (sic.)”
As many as 6 ministers took the oath with Arvind Kejriwal, who took over as the Delhi CM for the 3rd time.
Apart from this, 7 Delhi Members of Parliament (MPs) and 8 newly elected Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) skipped the event, citing some work.
Mr. Modi was in Varanasi for launching several projects along with the Delhi MPs and MLAs, due to which he was unable to attend the oath taking ceremony.
Though the BJP MPs and MLAs skipped the oath taking ceremony due to official reasons, the rocky relationship shared by the two parties could be the main reason.
Before the Delhi Assembly elections, both the AAP and the BJP criticised each other. The Delhi Assembly elections were held on the 8th of February and the results were announced on the 11th of February.
The AAP won the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections by winning 62 seats out of the 70, whereas the BJP won 8 seats, leaving none for the Indian National Congress (INC.)
