East Delhi MP-elect Harsh Malhotra sworn in as MoS

Samad Hoque

New Delhi, June 9

Winner of the East Delhi Lok Sabha seat, Harsh Malhotra, is all set to be a part of the Cabinet in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term.

During the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister for the third time held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan complex, among those taking the oath for cabinet positions was BJP MP Harsh Malhotra from East Delhi. He took oath as Union Minister of State and it marks his first term as an MP.

Malhotra, 60, had a close contest with AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar, 34, in the East Delhi constituency, however the former came out victorious with a margin of 93,000 votes.

He was chosen from the BJP stronghold in the capital replacing Indian cricketer, Gautam Gambhir, after the latter left politics to give time to the sport. Malhotra received 6,64,819 votes against Kumar’s 5,71,156 votes. Both the candidates were contesting for the MP seat for the first time. He is a graduate in Botany and and a post-graduate in law from Delhi University. He steadily climbed the organisational ranks of his party over several decades.

Meanwhile, West Delhi candidate Kamaljeet Sehrawat who was likely to be part of the cabinet has been left out. Sehrawat had won with a staggering margin of almost two lakh votes defeating former MP and AAP candidate Mahabal Mishra. Sehrawat was another fresh Jat face in the northern region of the country, who was chosen as surprise candidate replacing the two-time MP Parvesh Singh Verma. She was expected to be one of the weakest candidates among the seven BJP candidates in Delhi, however, she came out with the second highest victory margin of 1,99,013 votes.

Sehrawat is a former South Delhi Mayor, who began her political career in 2007 when she was appointed the BJP’s district vice-president in Najafgarh. In 2008, she contested the Assembly elections from the Matiala Vidhan Sabha constituency.