Delhi assembly session begins on February 24

The first session of the new Delhi Assembly will begin on February 24, with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports to be tabled on February 25, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and speaker nominee Vijender Gupta said.

On the first day of the assembly session, all 70 newly elected MLAs will take the oath of office, and Gandhi Nagar MLA Arvinder Singh Lovely will serve as the pro-tem Speaker to oversee the election of the speaker.

The first session will run for three days — February 24, 25, and 27 — skipping February 26 due to Maha Shivratri.

Gupta told HT that the new government’s top priority is to present 14 pending CAG reports from 2017-18 to 2021-22, which the AAP government had failed to table.

“The top agenda of the government is to table the 14 CAG reports… In its first meeting the Delhi cabinet approved the presentation of the CAG reports. The AAP government failed to present the CAG reports because it was afraid that the reports will expose the wrongdoings of its government. The reports have already been received by the office of the Speaker,” said Gupta.

The 14 CAG reports which the BJP has been demanding the AAP government to present in the Assembly for months span financial years from 2017-18 to 2021-22.

On Friday, BJP leader Vijender Gupta said he met Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta in her office in the Delhi secretariat and discussed the details of the agenda of the upcoming assembly session.

“Today, I had a meeting with chief minister Rekha Gupta ji and discussed in detail the agenda of the upcoming assembly session. The reports of the CAG will be presented on the table of the Assembly on February 25,” Gupta said in a post on X where he also shared the pictures of the meeting with CM.

An official from the Assembly secretariat confirmed that after the oath-taking, the election for speaker and deputy speaker will take place.

An official in Delhi assembly secretariat, who asked not to be identified, said that all 70 newly elected MLAs of the Delhi will take oath on the first day of the session after which the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker will be held. The BJP has nominated Mustafabad MLA Mohan Singh Bist for the position of the deputy speaker.

The official cited above said that Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena will address the Assembly the day after the Speaker’s election.

“The first sitting of the House will conclude after the oath of MLAs and the election of speaker. The second day the session will begin with LG’s address after which the House will take up listed businesses,” said the official. The details of the businesses the House will be shared a day before the session begins, the official said.