• BJP has not controlled the local legislator in New Delhi since 1998.
• Selections remove AAP -Leader Arvind Kejriwal, prominent critic of Modi.
• Gupta faces major challenges, including capital’s air pollution crisis.
  

A member of India’s ruling Hindu-nationalist party was sworn in on Thursday when Chief Minister of Delhi, after an election landslide handed over control over the capital for the first time in decades.

Rekha Gupta, 50, by Prime Minister Narendra Modis Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the fourth woman who serves as chief minister of the scattered megacity of more than 30 million people.

BJP is in government nationally but has not controlled the local legislative

Gupta, who has a legal degree and began his career in student policy in the city, was elected to the position of party members late Wednesday.

“I will faithfully and impartially perform the duties of the office,” said Gupta, pending the Oath of Office in front of an audience of cheering supporters.

Modi, who was present at the ceremony, said in a post of X that Gupta had “risen from the grass roots” to become chief minister.

“I am convinced that she will work for Delhi’s development with full strength,” he added.

The election removed the AAM AADMI party (AAP), whose leader Arvind Kejriwal had ruled Delhi for much of the last decade and was a prominent critic of Modi.

Kejriwal drove to power as an anti-corruption crusader, but spent several months behind columns last year over accusations that his party took a change in exchange for liquor licenses.

He has denied wrongdoing and characterized the charges as a political witch hunt by Modi’s government.

The victory is a boost for BJP and 74-year-old Modi, who won a third period in office after election last year, but with a reduced vote that forced him to rely on coalition partners to control.

Gupta faces major challenges, including Delhi’s monumental air pollution crisis, throwing the city in dangerous fumes for months in winter.

New Delhi is regularly ranked the worst capital in the world for suffocating smogs, often rising up to 60 times the recommended daily maximum of the World Health Organization.

Years of piecemeal government initiatives have failed to measurably solve the problem, where smogen accused of thousands of premature deaths annually and especially affect children and the elderly.

None of the most important parties made it tackle the health crisis into a rallying point for their campaigns.