Newly elected East Delhi MP Harsh Malhotra was sworn in as minister of state (MoS) in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) council of ministers under Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.
Chosen to be fielded from the BJP stronghold of East Delhi parliamentary constituency, 60-year-old Malhotra claimed 52.33 per cent of the votes, defeating the INDIA bloc’s candidate, the AAP Kondli MLA Kuldeep Kumar. He polled 6.64 lakh votes against Kumar’s 5.71 lakh votes, for a victory margin of 93,663 votes.
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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.
Jatin Anand is an Assistant Editor with the national political bureau of The Indian Express. With over 16 years of experience in mainstream journalism, he is a seasoned expert in national governance, electoral politics, and bureaucratic affairs. Having covered high-stakes beats including the Election Commission of India (ECI), intelligence, and urban development, Jatin provides authoritative analysis of the forces shaping Indian democracy. He is an alumnus of Zakir Husain Delhi College (DU) and the prestigious Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai, where he specialized in Print Journalism.
Expertise
High-Stakes Beat Coverage: Throughout his decade-and-a-half career, Jatin has covered some of the most sensitive and influential beats in the country, including:
The Election Commission of India (ECI): Monitoring electoral policy, reforms, and the conduct of national and state polls.
National Security & Intelligence: Reporting on the internal mechanisms and developments within India's security apparatus.
Urban Development: Analyzing the policies and bureaucratic processes driving the transformation of India’s cities.
National Political Bureau: In his current role, he tracks the intersection of policy and politics, offering deep-dive reporting on the Union government and national political movements.
Academic Credentials:
Zakir Husain Delhi College (DU): Alumnus of one of Delhi's premier institutions.
Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai: Specialized in Print Journalism at India's most prestigious journalism school. ... Read More
