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Arvind Kejriwal, 6 others to take oath today. A look at likely AAP ministers
All cabinet ministers who will take oath today were asked to fulfil the promises listed in AAP’s “guarantee card”.
AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal will take oath as Delhi chief minister for the third successive time today along with six of his party leaders who will be part of his cabinet.
Kejriwal is likely to retain all the six ministers who served his government in the previous term – Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Imran Hussain, Gopal Rai, Rajendra Gautam and Kailash Gehlot.
Manish Sisodia, who also held the position of Delhi’s deputy Chief Minister, is considered Kejriwal’s right-hand man and the force behind reforms in the public education sector. Apart from Education, Sisodia also held the crucial portfolios for Finance, Planning, Tourism, Land & Building, Vigilance, Services, Women & Child Development along with Art, Culture and Languages. It is speculated that the Patparganj MLA will retain his portfolios.
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Satyendar Jain, an architect by profession, credited for piloting AAP’s internationally recognized Mohalla Clinics programme in its first term, is likely to retain the portfolios of Health, Industries, Power, Public Works Department, Home and Urban Development.
Gopal Rai, another Kejriwal confidante, had held the Rural Development department apart from holding the charge for General Administration Department, Irrigation & Flood Control and Labour. Rai is also the convener of the Delhi state unit of the Aam Aadmi Party.
Imran Hussain, who is credited for enforcing the environmental norms in the capital during his first term in Kejriwal’s cabinet, held the triple charge for the departments of Environment & Forest, Food & Supply and Election.
Rajendra Gautam, an accomplished lawyer, who joined the Aam Aadmi Party in 2014, is also a member of AAP’s national executive. He was in charge of the Social Welfare department along with SC & ST, Gurudwara Elections, Water and Registrar of Cooperative Societies.
The sixth name in Kejriwal’s cabinet, Kailash Gahlot, is described as a philanthropist, educationist and an entrepreneur for social change by AAP.
As a Cabinet minister in Delhi government, Gahlot looked after the departments of Transport, Revenue, Law, Justice & Legislative Affairs, Information & Technology and Administrative Reforms.
On the eve of his swearing-in, Arvind Kejriwal hosted a dinner meeting for his cabinet colleagues where the roadmap for the future “development of the national capital” was discussed along with the initiatives identified by the party for implementation in the first three months of the government.
Manish Sisodia said all cabinet ministers, who will take oath on Sunday, were asked to fulfil the promises listed in AAP’s “guarantee card”.
AAP had released a card that carried the “10 guarantees of Kejriwal” ahead of the Delhi assembly polls. It included the promise to plant two crore saplings, clean the Yamuna river and reduce pollution in Delhi.
The AAP won 62 seats in the 70-member Delhi Assembly, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged the remaining eight seats.
