Atishi's Delhi cabinet: Mukesh Ahlawat new face; 4 ministers retained, says AAP

Gopal Rai, Kailash Gahlot, Saurabh Bharadwaj and Imran Hussain will continue in the council of ministers.

Updated on: Sep 19, 2024, 14:23:57 IST

By HT News Desk

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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has retained four of its Delhi ministers who will take the oath on Thursday alongside chief minister-designate Atishi.

Gopal Rai, Kailash Gahlot, Saurabh Bharadwaj and Imran Hussain will continue in the council of ministers headed by Atishi.

AAP announced that Mukesh Ahlawat will join as a new face, being sworn in as a cabinet minister in the Delhi government. Ahlawat represents the Sultanpur Majra assembly constituency, who secured victory with a margin of 48,042 votes in 2020 assembly polls, succeeding former minister Sandeep Kumar.

The party said that chief minister-designate Atishi and her cabinet will take the oath of office on September 21. After Arvind Kejriwal stepped down as Delhi chief minister on Tuesday, Atishi moved to establish a new government.

Managing 14 portfolios such as finance, education, and revenue, Atishi played a crucial role during Arvind Kejriwal’s imprisonment. Atishi will become the third woman to serve as Delhi's chief minister following Congress's Sheila Dikshit and BJP's Sushma Swaraj.

She will lead the government until the next assembly elections, scheduled for February 2025. The party said that Kejriwal will leave his official residence and surrender his security within 15 days.

After his release from jail on Friday, granted by the Supreme Court, Kejriwal announced on Sunday that he would step down as chief minister within 48 hours.

He also said he would return to the position only if voters provided him with a certificate of honesty. Kejriwal proposed Atishi's name at a meeting held at his residence, where it received unanimous support from the other MLAs.

From a first-time lawmaker in 2020 to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal’s successor as the Delhi chief minister, Atishi, 43, has come a long way over the last four years.

Atishi’s rise in the party and the government coincided with the worst crisis the AAP faced since its formation with the arrest of its top leaders including Kejriwal and his former deputy Manish Sisodia for alleged irregularities in now scrapped 2021-2022 excise police.

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HT News Desk
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