Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi likely to be elevated as Delhi ministers

Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi will be inducted into the Delhi cabinet following Satyendar Jain and Manish Sisodia's resignation following their arrests.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday forwarded the names of AAP MLAs Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi to the lieutenant governor for their appointments to the Delhi cabinet. This comes a day after Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain resigned from the cabinet following their arrest. Satyendar Jain was arrested in 2022 and since his arrest, the additional responsibility rested with Sisodia who, until Tuesday, was in charge of 18 departments.

Saurabh Bhardwaj, Greater Kailash MLA, and Atishi, Kalkaji MLA, are likely to be new Delhi ministers.

While Sisodia and Jain's departments were allocated to Kailash Gahlot and Raaj Kumar Anand, new induction into the cabinet was just a matter of time as Saurabh Bhardwaj on Tuesday confirmed that Kejriwal will be expanding the cabinet.

"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," Bhardwaj said.

Saurabh Bhardwaj is the MLA of the Greater Kailash constituency while Atishi represents Kalkaji.

Delhi L-G has recommended to President Droupadi Murmu that the resignations of Sisodia and Jain be accepted. Kejriwal accepted their resignations on Tuesday. Though Jain was arrested last year in May in a money laundering case, his resignation also came with that of Sisodia.

Atishi, an AAP member 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.

According to the party's website, Atishi was a key member of the Manifesto Drafting Committee of the party for the 2013 Assembly election. Atishi worked as Manish Sisodia's advisor in the education ministry.