Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi Minister Atishi Marlena now hold 10 portfolios, the highest among all. She was inducted into the cabinet following Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain’s resignations in March, this year. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has reshuffled his cabinet for the third time in the past four months, giving Atishi the additional charge of Finance, Revenue and Planning departments. Delhi LG VK Saxena has approved the proposal for the cabinet reshuffle.
Atishi worked closely for educational reforms with Manish Sisodia, an accused in the Delhi Liquor Scam case. Atishi, along with Saurabh Bharadwaj, was inducted after Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain resigned from the cabinet after their arrest. While Manish Sisodia was arrested for being the ‘mastermind’ of the Delhi Liquor Scam, Satyendar Jain was arrested in a money laundering case.
She was allotted six portfolios – Women and Child Development, Education, Tourism, Art, Language and Culture, PWD and Power – after being inducted into the cabinet. In the last cabinet reshuffle on June 1, Atishi was given the Public Relations portfolio as well. With the latest reshuffle, Atishi now holds 10 portfolios.
Notably, Delhi Minister Kailash Gahlot has lost the most in this reshuffle as he was earlier in charge of all three departments now given to Atishi. However, Gahlot still holds portfolios of Home, Law, Justice and Legislative Affairs, Transport, Administrative Reforms, and Information Technology. Saurabh Bharadwaj, who was inducted into the cabinet along with Atishi, is in charge of Vigilance, Services, Health, Industries, Urban Development, Irrigation and Flood Control and Water.
Meanwhile, Gopal Rai holds General Administration Department, Environment, Forest and Wildlife. Imran Hussain has the portfolios of Food and Supply and Election. Raj Kumar Anand holds Gurudwara elections, SC&ST, Social Welfare, Cooperative, Land & Building, Labour, and Employment.
Notably, MLA from Kalkaji, Atishi Marlena, before winning Assembly Elections, suffered a crushing defeat against cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. She came in third with 2,19,328 votes, comprising 17.44 per cent of total votes. Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Gautam Gambhir secured 6,96,156 votes which amount to 55.35 per cent of the total votes, winning against Atishi Marlena with a 4,76,828 vote margin. Congress’ candidate Arvinder Singh Lovely polled 3,04,934 votes, accounting for 24.24 per cent of the total votes.
