Overview

• The Council of Ministers formalized on August 2 that the chairpersons of the Trans-Yamuna and Delhi Village Development Boards will hold Cabinet minister status.
• Arvinder Singh Lovely will lead the Trans-Yamuna Development Board while Raj Kumar Chauhan has been named chairman of the Delhi Village Development Board.
• Official sources say the nominations secured Rekha Gupta’s approval in a recent Cabinet meeting and that government notifications are expected shortly.
• Lovely and Chauhan resigned from Congress in mid-2024—Lovely over its alliance with AAP and Chauhan after being denied a Lok Sabha ticket—and later won BJP seats in the Delhi Assembly.
• BJP insiders describe the high-rank appointments as rewards for the pair’s campaign contributions and a bid to leverage their Sheila Dikshit-era administrative experience for upcoming civic polls.