Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, March 9: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj were sworn in as new Ministers in the Delhi cabinet on Thursday. The swearing-in ceremony took place in the Auditorium at Raj Niwas, Delhi.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena administered the oath to newly inducted ministers.
AAP MLAs Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj take oath as Delhi ministers pic.twitter.com/nyH1q9vsJl
— ANI (@ANI) March 9, 2023
“In terms of the notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, Atishi Marlena and Saurabh Bharadwaj have been appointed as Ministers in the National Capital Territory of Delhi,” read the official statement from the General Administration Department.
The new ministers had filled the vacancies created after the resignation of former deputy CM Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain.
On Tuesday, President Droupadi Murmu accepted the resignations of former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Minister Satyendar Jain and signed off on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s request to induct Saurabh Bharadwaj and Atishi into the council of ministers.
AAP MLAs Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj were sworn in as Delhi ministers in the presence of Delhi LG VK Saxena and CM Arvind Kejriwal today pic.twitter.com/eutDlDS8LX
— ANI (@ANI) March 9, 2023
Arvind Kejriwal forwarded the names of the new ministers to the LG for their appointment on March 1, a day after Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain resigned on February 28.
Atishi represents the Kalkaji constituency and has been a key member of Sisodia’s education team. She had also contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the East Delhi constituency and lost to BJP’s Gautam Gambhir.
Saurabh Bharadwaj, the party’s national spokesperson, had served the Delhi Jal Board as its vice chairman. The legislator from Greater Kailash was also a minister during the first stint of the AAP government.
Notably, Manish Sisodia had resigned from his all 18 posts after he was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the 2021-22 excise policy, while Jain has been in jail for nine months in an alleged money laundering case.