Sheila sworn in along with Cabinet

The portfolios of the ministers are expected in the next two days. Dikshit said she would allocate them “logically and scientifically.”

Yoganand Shastri, 49, MLA from Malviya Nagar, is a Ph.D in Indian History with a specialisation in the Brahmi, Kharoshti and Indo-Greek scripts. The erudite Cabinet minister has been a teacher in the Bhagat Singh College since 1971.

Shastri began his political career in DU in 1978. He was the convenor of the University Teachers Congress. He was also in the metropolitan council in 1983, for which he contested the election from Malviya Nagar. He lost the 1993 Delhi Assembly elections by a margin of 258 votes to the former transport minister, Rajendra Gupta, who he defeated by 7,900 votes last week.

Narender Nath, a veteran councillor, is a doctor with an MBBS from DU. He began his political career with the Congress as the general secretary of Shahdara block. He was elected the metropolitan councillor from 1983 to 1990. He was then elected leader of the opposition in the MCD House in 1997. This time he won from Shahadra, defeating his BJP rival Ram Niwas Goel by 10,000 votes, said. Tirath hails from a family of Congressmen. Her father-in-law, the late T. Sohan Lal, was the Congress MP from Karol Bagh. Tirath was the president of the District Congress Committee. She was also the metropolitan councillor from Shadi Khampur. She, however, lost the 1991 parliamentary elections from Karol Bagh by about 2,500 votes.

Tirath won the 1993 Assembly elections from Baljeet Nagar. She has held various legislative posts including positions in the estimates committee and the Delhi Scheduled Caste Financial and Development Corporation.

Mahinder Singh Saathi, among the seniormost Congressmen in the city, was born in Amritsar. A graduate in Political Science from the Punjab University, he was a prominent student union leader. After taking up a job as a junior engineer with the government, he moved to Delhi. He was involved in the trade union movement from 1951-68 in the Capital. In 1969, he joined the Congress and was, among other things, general secretary of the DPCC for 11 years.

In 1977, he was elected the municipal councillor from Vishnu Garden. In 1982 he was made the mayor of the city, a post which he held till 1990. He was elected to the Delhi Assembly from Vishnu Garden in 1993 and again in 1998 by a margin of 4,250 votes. “I have never lost an election,” a jubilant Saathi says today, as he waits for a portfolio. Parvez Hashmi, 44, is an M.Sc in Chemistry from the Aligarh Muslim University. The MLA from Okhla began his career in politics in the university and was elected to the students’ union in 1972. He then graduated to Delhi politics, contesting for the Delhi Assembly in 1993. Though he had contested on a Janata Dal ticket, he won the seat. He then joined the Congress and is presently on the election campaign committee of the DPCC.