New Delhi: Delhi chief minister-designate Atishi, who is due to be sworn in on September 21, is all set to retain four old faces and bring in a fresh Dalit face in her Cabinet. AAP MLA Mukesh Ahlawat will be the new face in the Delhi Cabinet, the others to be retained are Gopal Rai, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Kailash Gahlot and Imran Hussain.
Mr Ahlawat, MLA from Delhi’s Sultanpur Majra, is being inducted to fill the vacancy created following the resignation of social welfare minister Raaj Kumar Anand. Mr Anand resigned from the Kejriwal government and quit the AAP in April.
Mr Ahalawat, who is currently co-incharge of the party's Rajasthan unit, led the AAP to victory in Sultanpur Majra constituency by defeating the BJP’s Ram Chander Chawriya by a margin of 48,042 votes in the 2020 Delhi elections.
According to the AAP, Mr Rai, Mr Bharadwaj, Mr Gahlot and Mr Hussain, who are part of outgoing chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's council of ministers, will be in the new Cabinet as well.
The Council of Ministers of the Delhi government has seven members, including the chief minister. The tenure of the chief minister and the new entrant will be brief as the Delhi Assembly polls are due in February next year. The name of the seventh member is yet to be announced.
The oath ceremony of the new chief minister is likely to be held at the Raj Niwas. It is expected to be a “low-key affair” given the circumstances of Mr Kejriwal's resignation. Ms Atishi herself has said Mr Kejriwal’s resignation was an “extremely sad moment”.
Ms Atishi and Mr Bharadwaj were inducted into the Kejriwal Cabinet after the AAP national convenor’s trusted lieutenants Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain resigned in February last year.
Mr Kejriwal resigned as Delhi chief minister earlier this week, after which Ms Atishi, chosen by the AAP as his successor, staked claim to forming a new government.
Ms Atishi holds 13 major portfolios in the outgoing Cabinet headed by Mr Kejriwal, including finance, revenue, PWD and education. Her experience in handling so many portfolios was among the reasons she was chosen to succeed Mr Kejriwal.
Mr Rai is in charge of environment, development and general administration, while Mr Bharadwaj helms the health, tourism and urban development departments, among others.
Mr Gahlot holds the portfolios of transport, home and women and child development, while Mr Hussain is the minister for food and supplies.
