 "Kejriwal to take oath as Delhi chief minister today")
Exactly a year ago, 42 Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) had defeated the introduction of the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi Assembly by casting their votes against it, leading to Kejriwal resigning as the chief minister. On Saturday, all those MLAs, barring one, will be replaced by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) functionaries in the Delhi Assembly; Kejriwal and his Cabinet team will take oath at 12 pm for the second time at the Ramlila Ground, barely 10 km from their office in Delhi Secretariat.
The six likely Cabinet ministers who will also take oath with Kejriwal would be: Manish Sisodia (education, PWD and urban development), Satyendra Jain (health and industry), Gopal Rai (transport and labour), Jitendra Tomar (law), Sandeep Kumar (women and child welfare department and SC and ST welfare) and Asim Ahmed (food and civil supplies and minority affairs). Kejriwal might keep home, power and finance portfolios and close aide Sisodia might become the first deputy chief minister of Delhi.
More From This Section
Security has been beefed up at the Ramlila Ground and the Delhi police expect around 150,000 people to join Kejriwal in his oath-taking ceremony. The venue can accommodate close to 60,000. Party sources said 2,000 volunteers will be deployed to help the police in managing the event and LED screens will be installed at several places to allow public viewing of the ceremony.
After the Cabinet takes oath, Kejriwal will deliver his speech and will leave for Rajghat to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and will then go to the Delhi Secretariat to meet bureaucrats.
In his speech, Kejriwal is likely to tell his MLAs to not become arrogant because of the huge mandate. The AAP chief’s speech will be centered on the party’s promises related to electricity rate cut, free water and re-launching the anti-corruption helpline.
There will be seating arrangement for 30,000 people and all the remaining 60 AAP MLAs and other party leaders will watch the proceedings from the public gallery, party sources said.
“The preparations are in full-swing. We have installed 21 LED televisions at various locations inside and outside the venue to ensure people standing at different points can also listen to their chief minister uninterruptedly,” said Neeraj Kumar, an AAP volunteer, in-charge of the event.
There will be a three-layer barricading and citizens may be asked to stop at various check points in case the crowd overflows the venue, Kumar said. So, 12 LEDs are positioned at seven points such as Rajghat, Ajmeri Gate, etc from where people can view the swearing-in ceremony. The entry for general public will be open from gate numbers 4 to 6 and 8 to 9 and there will be exclusive entry for women, children and old citizens from gate number 3.
Immediately after the Delhi election results were declared on Tuesday, Kejriwal had invited Delhi citizens for the event urging them to join him in “to make Delhi a better place.”