Arvind Kejriwal swearing-in gets a date with Congress history

New Delhi: In a quirk of fate, the date of the swearing-in ceremony of Delhi Chief Minister-designate Arvind Kejriwal will coincide with the 128th anniversary of the foundation of Congress on Saturday.

Activist-turned-politician Kejriwal will take oath as Delhi`s seventh Chief Minister at the historic Ramlila Maidan here. The new government`s birth will coincide with the date of birth of India`s oldest party that suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of AAP in the Assembly polls. As the election threw a hung assembly, Congress in a post-poll arithmetic decided to lend "outside support" to AAP though the camp is now divided over the issue. While AAP garnered 28 seats in a 70-member House, BJP with 31 emerged as the singled largest party but both fell short of the magical number of 36 to form the government. Top officials in Delhi Government said Kejriwal and six AAP MLAs will be sworn-in in a public ceremony at 12 PM at the Maidan, the venue of anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare`s massive rallies in recent past which thrusted Kejriwal into national prominence. The cabinet ministers who will take oath along with Kejriwal are Manish Sisodia, Rakhi Birla, Somnath Bharti, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Girish Soni and Satendra Jain. Suffering a debacle in all four state elections, a bruised Congress is now looking to revitalise its poll strategy ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The 128-year-old political behemoth now finds its foundation day bracketed with the swearing-in ceremony of the AAP party that scripted its rout in the national capital.