President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday appointed Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj as ministers in the Delhi Cabinet on the advice of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with effect from the date they would be sworn in, a Ministry of Home Affairs notification said. The President also accepted the resignations of Satyendra Jain and Manish Sisodia as Delhi ministers.
The development comes after Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain resigned from their ministerial positions after being arrested in corruption cases. While Sisodia is in judicial custody in the Delhi excise policy case, Jain is in Tihar Jail on allegations of money laundering in a case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate.
With Sisodia's arrest, the Delhi government has a vacuum in key portfolios like finance, health and education.
Bhardwaj, who is also AAP's national spokesperson, had served the Delhi Jal Board as its vice chairman. Bharadwaj, legislator from Greater Kailash, was also a minister during the first stint of the AAP government.
Atishi, who is MLA from Kalkaji constituency, has been a key member of Sisodia's education department. She had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the East Delhi constituency but lost to BJP's Gautam Gambhir.
READ | Manish Sisodia Sent To Judicial Custody Till March 20 In Delhi Liquor Policy Case
Till Atishi and Bhardwaj are sworn in as ministers, Raaj Kumar Anand and Kailash Gahlot are taking care of the portfolios that have fallen vacant following Sisodia's resignation.
Of the 18 departments headed by Sisodia, the responsibilities of eight departments, including Finance and PWD, have been given to Kailash Gahlot, while the remaining ten, including Education and Health have been assigned to Raaj Kumar Anand.
AAP has been forced to rejig its Cabinet portfolios after Sisodia, widely seen to be Kejriwal's number two in the party and the government, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with alleged corruption in the now-withdrawn liquor policy.
The senior AAP leader was brought to Tihar Jail on Monday shortly after a CBI court remanded him to 14-day judicial custody till March 20 in the case.