First-time MP Harsh Malhotra sworn in as MoS

However, his victory margin of 6.85 per cent votes is the lowest in terms of vote share among the seven BJP MP elects from the national capital.

Malhotra is the only BJP MP-elect from the capital to be part of the Modi-led government’s council of ministers in the third term. In the previous term, New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi was chosen as the MoS for Culture.

She was not repeated as a candidate this time. Malhotra was serving his second consecutive term as Delhi BJP general secretary when he was chosen to replace former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir from the constituency. Considered Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva’s right-hand and a loyal “organisational man”, Malhotra studied Botany, and later Law, at the Delhi University. He has climbed up the organisational ranks of the party over decades.

He is a former district president from Navin Shahdara and was elected as a councillor from East Delhi in 2017. He later rose to the rank of mayor of the erstwhile East Delhi Municipal Corporation.