Manish Sisodia to be Deputy CM of Delhi

New Delhi, Feb 12: The senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia, a close confidant of party chief Arvind Kejriwal, is likely to be the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi.

The decision to make Sisodia as the Deputy CM was taken at a meeting of AAP's Political Affairs Committee (PAC) last night at Kejriwal's residence in Kaushambhi, party sources said.

Some other names likely to be included in the cabinet besides Sisodia are Kapil Mishra, Asim Ahmed Khan, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Satyendra Jain, Jitendar Tomar, Sandeep Kumar, Adarsh Shastri. At the same time, Somnath Bharthi and Rakhi Birla, the two controversial former ministers will be kept out from the cabinet list.

The midnight raid conducted by Bharti in Khirki extension, targeting African nationals on alleged sex racket operation has pointed to wide spread criticism from women rights group. Rakhi Birla, former minister for women and child welfare, had filed a case against a young boy for allegedly stoning her car. The police, however, said it was a cricket ball. Birla was forced by Kejriwal to withdraw the case.

Sisodia is being given the responsibility so that Chief Minister-designate Kejriwal can focus on building the party at the national level, they said.

Manish Sisodia is credited with strengthening AAP at the grassroot level, after it lost all the seven parliamentary constituencies in the Lok Sabha elections last year.

He was minister of Education, PWD, Urban Development and Local Bodies in the 49-day AAP government that had resigned on February 14 last year on the Lokpal issue.

Kejriwal, Sisodia and other cabinet ministers will take oath of office at Ramlila ground on Saturday.

Sisodia had won from Patparganj constituency defeating BJP's Vinod Kumar Binny, who was expelled from the party last year.

He had worked as a journalist with Zee News and All India Radio for a long time. He later quit journalism to participate in the agitation for Right To Information.

Sisosdia was one of the founding members of the Jan Lokpal agitation and part of the team which chalked out its first draft. When Anna Hazare was arrested and sent to jail during the agitation, he too was sent to prison.

PTI