Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj took oath as ministers in the Delhi Cabinet on Thursday in the presence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena. The governor administered the oath to office to the new ministers at the Auditorium at Raj Niwas.
Atishi, MLA from Kalkajo constituency, has been allocated Education, PWD, Power and Tourism portfolios while Greater Kailash legislator Saurabh Bharadwaj will handle the Health, Water and Industries and Urban Development portfolios, reported ANI.
The new ministers were sworn in following the resignations of former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and Health minister Satyendar Jain following graft charges. Sisodia held 18 of the 33 government portfolios.
On Tuesday, President Droupadi Murmu accepted the resignations of the former ministers, who are currently in Tihar jail in Delhi in connection with the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 case. She also appointed Atishi and Saurabh as the new ministers in the Delhi cabinet on the advice of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal
The Delhi CM had forwarded the names of the new members to Saxena for their appointment.
Atishi has been working closely with Sisodia in the education sector, and had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the East Delhi constituency and lost to BJP
Saurabh is the party’s national spokesperson and was also a minister during the first stint of the AAP government.