AAP members indicated that former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who was granted bail by the Supreme Court on Friday in matters involving corruption and money laundering related to the now-canceled Delhi excise policy, is expected to be appointed to the Arvind Kejriwal cabinet shortly.
Sisodia’s appointment to the council of ministers will be “easy,” according to a Delhi government official, and won’t result in a significant cabinet reorganisation because one position is already open in the wake of former AAP minister Raaj Kumar Anand’s departure in April of this year.
The chief minister is one of a maximum of seven ministers in Delhi. According to Article 239AA of the Constitution, the size of the Delhi Cabinet cannot exceed 10% of the number of members in the legislative assembly. The Delhi Assembly has 70 members.
According to AAP leaders, who asked not to be identified, the plan to induct Sisodia, who was released after over 17 months of incarceration, is likely to be finalised in consultation with CM Kejriwal, who is in jail over separate cases lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as part of their probes into the alleged irregularities in the liquor policy. This is why a decision on when the meeting would be held and how the induction would take place is yet to be taken, they said.
Sisodia was detained by the CBI on February 26, 2023, while serving as an MLA for East Delhi’s Patparganj constituency. He left the cabinet two days later, having held 18 important portfolios including finance, excise, PWD, education, and health. In addition to Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, a previous minister, also resigned. As a result, Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj were appointed to the cabinet and given most of the important positions.
“It is likely that Manish Sisodia will be inducted into Arvind Kejriwal government but when will the induction take place and how it will take place are yet to be decided,” said one of the AAP leaders cited above.
On the possibility of Sisodia’s induction, AAP’s Sanjay Singh said, “Let him come out of jail, we will discuss the matter and decide.” Health minister Bharadwaj, however, told reporters that Sisodia will join the Cabinet.
Ahead of the impending assembly elections in Delhi and Haryana, Sisodia’s return to the cabinet may provide some respite for the beleaguered AAP government.
Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said,“As the CM himself is in jail, how will he expand the cabinet? And if Sisodia becomes a minister then what a scene it would be to see a minister going to report to his local police SHO twice a week.”
