AAP leaders Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj were sworn in as ministers in the Delhi government on Thursday in the presence of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, and L-G VK Saxena.
While Atishi has been given the Education, PWD, Power, and Tourism portfolios, Bharadwaj has been allotted the Health, Urban Development, Water and Industries portfolios. Meanwhile, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot has been given the Health and Finance portfolios.
Congratulating the ministers, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said, “Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi have been sworn in as ministers by LG. The way Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain were doing good work for Delhi, I hope they (Bharadwaj and Atishi) will also follow in their footsteps and do good work for the capital.”
Both the MLAs were on Tuesday appointed as ministers in the Delhi cabinet by President Droupadi Murmu.
A notification from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) stated that the President has appointed Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj as ministers in the Delhi cabinet on the advice of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal with effect from the date they are sworn in.
This comes after President Murmu accepted the resignations of former deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who quit last week after his arrest in the Delhi liquor policy scam case, and former health minister Satyendar Jain, who was arrested last May in a money laundering case. Jain resigned on the same day as Sisodia. The two leaders are currently lodged in Tihar jail.
Bharadwaj, who is also AAP’s national spokesperson, is currently the vice-chairman of the Delhi Jal Board. The MLA from Greater Kailash was also a minister during the first stint of the AAP government.
Atishi, who represents the Kalkaji assembly seat, has been a key member of Sisodia’s education team. She had also contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the East Delhi constituency but lost to BJP’s Gautam Gambhir.
Following their resignations, some of Sisodia’s and Jain’s portfolios were given to Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot and Social Welfare Minister Rajkumar Anand.
AAP’s second-in-command, Sisodia handled most of the crucial departments of the city government, holding as many as 18 of the 33 departments. His workload increased manifold after Jain’s arrest as he helmed the latter’s portfolios also such as health, industries, power, home, urban development, irrigation and flood control, and water.
Sisodia was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation last Sunday in connection with alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2021-22.
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