Jal Board V-C Kapil Mishra to be Delhi's law minister

Delhi Jal Board vice-chairman Kapil Mishra on Wednesday was named as new law minister of Delhi.

Delhi Jal Board vice-chairman Kapil Mishra was on Wednesday named as the new law minister in place of Jitender Singh Tomar who was forced to resign from the post following his arrest on charge of possessing fake degrees.

"I had a meeting with Arvind ji (Kejriwal) and have been informed about the development (of appointment as the law minister)," Mishra, a first-time MLA, told PTI.

Other names which were discussed were Chandni Chowk MLA Alka Lamba, former law minister Somnath Bharti (Malviya Nagar) and Kailash Gahlot, legislator from Najafgarh.

34-year-old Mishra's name was also doing the rounds for a ministerial berth when Aam Aadmi Party had won a landslide victory in February this year.

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However, he was made the vice-chairman of Delhi Jal Board to help realise AAP's election promise of providing cheap water in the city.

Known as a Kejriwal loyalist, Mishra has been associated with him since the India Against Corruption (IAC) days.

When Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan rebelled against Kejriwal, he took a lead in starting a signature campaign urging all MLAs to back the chief minister.

Mishra, a former activist with an international organisation, won from Karawal Nagar by a margin of over 44,000 votes and took oath in Sanskrit in the Delhi Assembly.

He replaces Tomar who was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly forging his science graduation and law mark sheets and a migration certificate.

Tomar was sent to four days police custody by a Delhi court. From the police lock-up, Tomar sent his resignation letter to Kejriwal through his lawyer.