Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj were on Tuesday appointed as ministers in the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Cabinet.
Atishi and Bharadwaj replaced jailed former ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain. Both of them are accused in different corruption cases.
Sisodia was also the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi. He was arrested on February 26 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Following the arrest, he and Jain resigned from their Cabinet posts.
In two separate Gazette notifications, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said President Droupadi Murmu has appointed Atishi and Bharadwaj as ministers. The appointment will come into effect with the swearing-in of the two newly appointed ministers.
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The President of India appoints ministers of Delhi government based on the advice of the Chief Ministers of Delhi.
Bhardwaj is the AAP MLA from Greater Kailash. He also serves as the Chief National Spokesperson of AAP and as the Vice Chairman of Delhi Jal Board.
Atishi is the AAP MLA from Kalkaji area. She is also the member of AAP's apex body Political Affairs Committee (PAC).
As the most important minister in the Kejriwal Cabinet, Sisodia was heading 18 of Delhi's 33 departments. As Atishi and Bharadwaj are set to replace him and Jain, the portfolios are also to be reallocated, posing an administrative challenge besides the ongoing political challenge.
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While AAP maintains that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government is weaponising investigative agencies, the BJP has taken on the party to hit at its anti-corruption character. It's not just the BJP that's attacking AAP over the corruption cases against its leaders, but also the fellow Opposition party of Congress that has called the federal investigation into the alleged Delhi Excise Policy Scam a "fair investigation".
