3 min readNew DelhiFeb 27, 2023 07:25 AM IST
First published on: Feb 27, 2023 at 02:27 AM IST
With the Budget session expected to be held in a few days, trouble for Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia couldn’t have come at a worse time for the AAP and Delhi government.
With 18 departments in his portfolio, Sisodia is Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s most trusted aide in the government as well as the party. The big question for the CM at the moment is how the government will function without two of its most senior ministers — Sisodia and Satyendar Jain.
Jain has been in Tihar for the past 9 months on charges of alleged money laundering in a case being probed by the ED. Over these months, key departments he used to handle have been taken care of by Sisodia. These include home, health, power and PWD and are in addition to departments such as education, finance, vigilance and employment that he was in-charge of to begin with.
Jain retained his position as a minister, even if he had no departments under him. Before heading to the CBI headquarters for questioning Sunday, Sisodia said he may be going to jail for seven to eight months. AAP now has to decide either to remove Sisodia and Jain as ministers and bring in new faces or to continue working at diminished strength.
As per rules, there can only be seven ministers, including the Chief Minister, in the Delhi cabinet. If the two are not removed, AAP will have to make do with the ministers it has alongside Kejriwal right now — Kailash Gahlot, Gopal Rai, Raaj Kumar Anand and Imran Hussain.
As per sources in the party, the likelihood of new members being inducted into the cabinet is low. “The message this will send out is wrong. We are not abandoning either of the two. The cases against them are politically motivated and we do not want to even appear to penalise them. The remaining members of the cabinet will run the government. Other senior leaders such as Saurabh Bharadwaj, Atishi and Durgesh Pathak are expected to support the ministers,” said a senior party leader who did not wish to be named.
This is not the only CBI probe Sisodia’s name has figured in recently. The second is for the alleged creation of a ‘feedback unit’ to collect political intelligence against AAP’s rivals. The MHA granted sanction to prosecute Sisodia in this case last week.
“The party has never backed down from a fight. Scores of cases have been filed against us and our leaders have been acquitted in most. But the relentless pressure these two cases have created is undeniable,” said a senior leader. “In such situations, the process becomes the punishment. The whole government will be at the receiving end.”
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia at Rajghat before heading to the CBI office for questioning, Sunday. Abhinav Saha 
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