Atishi, the leader of the AAP, will be sworn in as Delhi’s chief minister and her council of ministers on Saturday afternoon at Raj Niwas, according to authorities.
According to officials in the lieutenant governor’s office, President Droupadi Murmu has named Atishi as Delhi’s chief minister effective the day she was sworn in and has accepted Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation.
The President also cleared the appointment of five ministers and the oath-taking ceremony will take place at 4.30 pm at Raj Niwas, they said.
According to an AAP leader, the ceremony is likely to be a low-key affair as the mood in the party is not upbeat because of Kejriwal’s resignation and also because of the delay in approvals, leaving little time for preparations.
After Kejriwal tendered resignation as Delhi chief minister along with his council of ministers to Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Tuesday, files of both the resignation and government formation by Atishi were sent to President Droupadi Murmu for her nod, the officials said.
The new council of ministers announced by the AAP would include Gopal Rai, Kailash Gahlot, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Imran Hussain and new entrant Mukesh Ahlawat, a first-time MLA from Sultanpur Majra.
Rai, Gahlot, Bharadwaj and Hussain are ministers in the outgoing Kejriwal government.
AAP national convener Kejriwal walked out of the Tihar jail on September 13, spending over five months behind bars in an excise policy case. In a surprise announcement two days later, Kejriwal said he would resign in the wake of BJP’s “mudslinging” against him over corruption.
Kejriwal had announced that he would return to the post of chief minister after getting a “certificate of honesty” from Delhi people in the assembly polls.
The tenure of the Atishi government will be brief as assembly polls in Delhi are due in February next year.
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Source: HT
