Delhi Chief Minister Atishi
Arvind Kejriwal has resigned from the post of Chief Minister of Delhi on Tuesday evening. Atishi will now be the new Chief Minister of Delhi. After being elected as the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party’s legislative party, Atishi met Lt. Governor VK Saxena and claimed to form the government. With the coronation of the Chief Minister, Atishi will have to form the cabinet in a new way. In such a situation, all eyes are now on whether Atishi will repeat the old leaders and work with Kejriwal’s team or give a chance to new faces in the cabinet?
Delhi assembly elections are almost five months away. Arvind Kejriwal wants to hold elections in Delhi along with Maharashtra, which he has already mentioned. In such a situation, if the Election Commission agrees, the Delhi elections can be announced at any time. Atishi will have to form his new cabinet keeping all these facts in mind. Two new faces will have to be included in the cabinet after Atishi becomes the chief minister. In such a situation, he can try to solve the regional and caste equations by giving a chance to new faces in the new cabinet vacancies.
Old ministers or new faces?
If Atishi keeps the new faces in the cabinet, they will hardly get three months to work. In such a situation, it will take them a month and a half to learn and understand their sections, then when will they work? The ruling party will not want to take any risky step before the elections. At the same time, senior ministers are aware of the functioning of their departments. This is why Atishi should run the government with the help of an old face. In such a situation, the ministers included in the Kejriwal cabinet may be given one more chance.
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Will Kejriwal express confidence in the team?
A maximum of 6 ministers can be made in addition to the Chief Minister based on the members of the Delhi Assembly. Gopal Rai, Kailash Gehlot, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Imran Hussain, Atishi and Anand Kumar Kejriwal were part of the cabinet. Anand Kumar has left the party and Atishi is now going to become the Chief Minister. Thus two seats in the cabinet are vacant and there are four old ministers. In such a situation, if Atishi expresses faith in Kejriwal’s team, then all the four old faces may get a chance.
These ministers can get a place
If the current cabinet is reshuffled, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gehlot, Imran Hussain and Saurabh Bhardwaj may get a place in the cabinet. Apart from this, other MLAs can also be made ministers. A Scheduled Caste person can be made a minister if there is a common seat on both these seats. Faces like Somnath Bharti, Durgesh Pathak, Sanjeev Jha, Dilip Pandey and Mahendra Goyal are in the race to become a minister in this general seat.
Dalit faces will get a place
Rajkumar Anand, who was inducted as a Dalit face in the Kejriwal cabinet, resigned from the Aam Aadmi Party’s primary membership and ministerial post in April this year. He was made a minister in place of Rajendra Pal Gautam. Gautam resigned as minister in October 2022 following a controversy over his comments on Hindu deities. Both Rajkumar Anand and Rajendra Pal Gautam were Dalit faces. In such a situation, the party will try to place a Dalit face in the cabinet. Currently, Kuldeep Kumar, Rakhi Birla, Vishre Ravi and Girish Soni are Dalit faces in the party. Any one of these can be made a minister.
The challenge of attracting voters from Purvanchali
By deciding to make Atishi the Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal has certainly taken a step towards wooing the Punjabi community, but the challenge of wooing the Purvanchal and Dalit votes is definitely there. It is certain that Dalit will get a chance in place of Rajkumar Anand, but Purvanchali may give a chance to a new face for the vote. Durgesh Pathak is from Gorakhpur while Dilip Pandey is from Ghazipur. Dilip Pandey holds the post of Chief Whip of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi Assembly. In such a situation, a large number of voters come from UP and Bihar, especially Purvanchal, in Delhi. To train them, we have to see who Atishi gives a chance in his cabinet.
