 "Sisodia to become Deputy CM")
The party has sent a list of eight names to Delhi’s Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung – six Cabinet ministers, a Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Delhi Assembly. All of them will take oath at the Ramlila Maidan along with Kejriwal on Saturday.
Party sources said Kejriwal will campaign for the Punjab Assembly elections scheduled in February 2017 and will be later focusing on other states too. “Kejriwal will be busy campaigning for the elections six months in advance. In the meantime, Sisodia will be the best person to handle the affairs in Delhi,” said an AAP leader. The party leader said it is unlikely that the party will contest the Bihar Assembly polls scheduled later this year.
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On Thursday, Kejriwal accompanied by Sisodia, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged him to grant full statehood to Delhi and sought the Centre’s help on various other issues. “We told the prime minister that it is a golden opportunity as both the Centre and the state government enjoy strong majority and we can together make Delhi a better city,” Sisodia told reporters. He said the PM had agreed to consider the statehood proposal.
Kejriwal invited Modi to his oath-taking. However, the prime minister said he will be out of the city on that day.
Party sources said the Cabinet will see four new faces: Founder-member Gopal Rai (Babarpur), Jitender Tomar (Tri Nagar), Sandeep Kumar (Sultanpuri Majra) and Asim Ahmed Khan (Matia Mahal). All are first-time MLAs.
Apart from Sisodia, only Satyendra Jain has been retained as a Cabinet minister and might get the health portfolio. Shahdara MLA Ram Niwas Goel will be Speaker and Bandana Kumari, from Shalimar Bagh constituency, will be deputy speaker.
Sources said portfolios have not been allocated and there might be re-shuffles during the five-year tenure.
Rai has been a part of key decisions of the party such as candidate selection for Delhi elections and previously the Lok Sabha elections. Both Tomar and Kumar are former lawyers and one of them will likely be in-charge of law in Delhi. Kumar had won the elections with the highest margins in terms of vote share. Khan is the only minority face in the Cabinet and had defeated Congress’ Shoaib Iqbal, who was a sitting MLA for over two decades.
AAP MLAs and former state Cabinet ministers Somnath Bharti, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Rakhi Birla and Girish Soni have been kept out this time. Bharti was mired in controversy after he had conducted midnight raids at Khirki extension and had allegedly misbehaved with African women. Party sources said Bharti hasn’t been allotted any portfolio because of a pending case against him. Birla and Soni will be given “other responsibilities”, the source said, adding Bharadwaj couldn’t be accommodated for personal reasons.
Goel was former president of East Delhi unit of BJP. Sources said he was the man behind the party’s success in the Krishna Nagar seat from where BJP chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi had contested.
Kumari, head of AAP’s women wing, was instrumental in bringing in the ‘Purvanchali’ support to the party.
For the oath-taking ceremony, the party has not sent out any political invite, sources said. A party leader explained the seven Lok Sabha MPs and 3 Rajya Sabha MPs were given the invitation through the L-G as per the protocol. The party had, however, invited Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu and Home Minister Rajnath Singh for the event but they are unlikely to attend. Further, Kejriwal and his team aren't likely to travel by Metro to reach the Ramlila Maidan this year, as was the case in 2013.