As Kailash Gahlot joins BJP, AAP brings in ‘Jat face’ Raghuvinder Shokeen to replace him as minister

“Arvind Kejriwal has decided that Raghuvinder Shokeen will be a minister in CM Atishi’s Cabinet. We all know he is a popular leader from the Jat community and has done significant work in the field of education,” senior AAP leader and former deputy CM Manish Sisodia said at a presser Monday.

“Shokeen is a Jat face and his presence will influence voters living in the rural parts of the city towards the AAP. Jat vote percentage is only 4-5 per cent in Delhi but his image will help garner more votes. He has a larger presence among people. Rural parts of Delhi also have a growing population of labourers from western UP and Bihar who have settled in unauthorised colonies. So, having him as a minister will have a major impact ahead of the polls,” said a senior AAP leader.

Shokeen said AAP has always worked by including every section of society. “…while the BJP has consistently worked against the Jat community, whether it was during the farmers’ protest, the issue of wrestlers, or the Haryana elections. The BJP won the Haryana elections by making it ‘Jats versus others’ and worked to divide our community. Since the Hindu-Muslim divide does not work there, they divided Haryana through Jat-non-Jat politics,” he said.

Shokeen joined the AAP in 2013-14. Before that, he was with the BJP and had served as a councillor with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, both as a BJP member and as an Independent. AAP leaders said he has been with the party since the day of its inception and has been working with senior leaders. A civil engineer by profession and an educationist, Shokeen runs several primary schools in villages and several other places in Delhi.

It is not clear what portfolios would be given to Shokeen but party insiders said he is likely to get charge of the departments held by Gahlot and could be entrusted with the execution of the Mahila Samman Rashi scheme — one of AAP’s poll promises under which former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced an aid of Rs 1,000 per month to eligible women aged 18 to 60 — before the Assembly polls.

In the AAP Cabinet, Gahlot had held portfolios, including transport, home, administrative reforms, IT, and women and child development. Several important projects were also under his charge, including the electrification of bus depots, induction of electric buses, and the Mahila Samman Rashi scheme.

Meanwhile, former Congress MLA from Matiala, Somesh Shokeen, another Delhi Jat leader, joined the AAP in the presence of Kejriwal Monday.