Guwahati: Saurabh Bharadwaj and Atishi both members of the Delhi Legislative Assembly are expected to take Satyendar Jain’s and Manish Sisodia’s places in the Delhi cabinet.
Chief minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday handed the lieutenant governor the names of AAP MLAs Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi for their appointments to the Delhi cabinet. This took place a day after Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain left the government following their arrest.
Sisodia and Jain’s departments were given to Kailash Gahlot and Raaj Kumar Anand, respectively but it was only a question of time before new members of the cabinet were added after Saurabh Bhardwaj announced on Tuesday that Kejriwal would be expanding the cabinet.
Bharadwaj said, “The cabinet in Delhi is quite small and most of the important departments were handled by Satyendar Jain and Manish Sisodia. To avoid being behind in terms of work, two new ministers will be appointed very soon.”
Atishi represents Kalkaji and Saurabh Bhardwaj is the MLA for the Greater Kailash constituency.
President Droupadi Murmu has been advised by Delhi L-G to accept Sisodia and Jain’s resignations. Kejriwal accepted their resignations on Tuesday. Jain resigned along with Sisodia despite being arrested in a money laundering case in May of last year.
The controversy over Jain’s imprisonment hasn’t subsided despite a rumoured video showing him getting special treatment inside the jail. In addition to being famous for his work in education, Sisodia was in charge of PWD’s finances.
An AAP member Atishi since its inception turned heads when she picked Marlena – Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin — as a surname. In the last election, however, Atishi dropped Marlena and became Singh again.
Atishi was a significant contributor to the party’s manifesto-drafting committee for the 2013 Assembly election, according to the party’s website. Manish Sisodia’s adviser in the ministry of education was Atishi.
After Satyendar Jain’s arrest in 2022 extra responsibility has fallen on Sisodia who up until Tuesday was in charge of 18 departments.