New-look Kejriwal cabinet sheds 4 from last time

Senior party leaders confirmed that the rest of the cabinet will include MLA from Trinagar Jitendra Singh Tomar, Sandeep Kumar from Sultanpur Majra, MLA from Babarpur Gopal Rai and Asim Ahmad Khan from Matia Mahal. Further, party leaders also said that Ram Niwas Goel would be the Speaker of the Delhi Assembly, while  Bandana Kumari will be his deputy.

[related-post]

Senior leaders said the new composition of the cabinet was open to change in case there was “non-performance.”

“Any minister can be removed at any point of time in case the party feels that he is not delivering,” a senior leader said.

“However, this cabinet says two things. One that we are assessing MLA’s that are new entrants to the party, and will judge them on their work in their constituencies, and later, if they deserve it, they may be given ministries. Secondly, a message is being sent that there is primacy of organisation in the party, and those who have been loyal to the party and are capable will be given ministries,” the leader said.
Sources also said that four names have been dropped from the cabinet because of “different  issues”.

“Somnath Bharti has some cases against his name. It was felt that the other three had not completely lived up to expectation and changes were possible with a mandate of 67 MLAs.

There were issues with Rakhi Birla’s behaviour and the performance of the other two was not seen as completely satisfactory,” a leader said.

Confirming that he had been kept out of the Delhi Cabinet by the AAP, Greater Kailash MLA and former Transport Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj said, “It is the prerogative of the chief minister.”

This time, six names had to be decided for the cabinet out of 67 MLAs. The task is more difficult than last time when there were just 28 MLAs. Party sources also indicated that there were MLAs who are still in the running to be parliamentary secretaries. “There are several positions that must be filled. But yes, there is a chance that Kapil Mishra, Somdutt, Sanjeev Jha and Adarsh Shastri could be made parliamentary secretaries,” a leader said.