New faces may get Cabinet portfolios

NEW DELHI: With another landslide victory for the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi Assembly polls, party chief Arvind Kejriwal plans to rejig his Cabinet when he forms the new government. Sources said that Atishi and Raghav Chadha would be part of Kejriwal's new Cabinet.

Atishi has won the election from Kalkaji while Chadha won it from Rajinder Nagar. Both were contributing to the state government in different capacities as advisors before being removed by the Centre, citing "illegal appointments".

Atishi, an alumna of Delhi's St Stephens College and Oxford University, has been praised by the party for her efforts to reform Delhi's education sector. With her reaching the Assembly, sources said that role of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia would be bit curtailed as she would now be looking after the Education Department.

Sisodia, with help of Atishi, who completed her Master's degree in History on a Chevening scholarship and went to Oxford's Magdalen College as a Rhodes scholar, had made an impact in the education system in the national Capital. She had served as advisor to the Deputy Chief Minister on Education, from July, 2015 to April, 2018, before her removal for holding an unapproved designation. She is also a member of the political affairs committee of the Aam Aadmi Party.

Chadha, who is a member of the national executive of the party, is a chartered accountant by profession and the national spokesperson of the AAP. He played a key role in the communication and outreach efforts of the party. He is also the party's in-charge of legal affairs.

After the party came to power with a thumping majority in the 2015 Assembly election, Chadha, who specialises in international tax and transfer pricing, was appointed as an advisor in the Finance Ministry headed by Sisodia. However, in April, 2018, he was sacked along with nine other advisors by the Centre, which termed their appointment as illegal. Both of them had contested Lok Sabha polls 2019 but they lost.

Kejriwal would retain Satyendar Jain but there would be change in his portfolios. He currently holds power, PWD, health and family welfare, industries and Gurudwara Elections.