President accepts resignation of Sisodia, Jain; appoints Bharadwaj, Atishi as Delhi ministers

A week after they put in papers, President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday accepted the resignations of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Minister Satyendar Jain and appointed Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj as new ministers in the Arvind Kejriwal ministry.

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Sisodia, who was arrested by CBI in Delhi excise policy case, and Jain, who is in judicial custody in a money laundering case for the past nine months, had submitted their resignations on February 28 after the Supreme Court refused to entertain a plea by the former for bail.

AAP had indicated that Atishi and Bharadwaj would take up the two seats vacated by Sisodia and Jain. The argument was that the work in Delhi could not be affected though the party stood behind the two leaders solidly.

AAP chief spokesperson Bharadwaj, a computer engineer, was minister in Kejriwal's 49-day government and is now returning to the governance set up while Aatishi will be entering the government for the first time.

Bharadwaj represents Greater Kailash while Atishi represents Kalkaji and both are considered close to Kejriwal. Aatishi was a key member of Sisodia's team, which implemented education reforms in the capital.

So far, there is no notification about the ministries which will be handled by the two new ministers.

Earlier, the ministries held by Sisodia were distributed between Kailash Gahlot and Ram Kumar Anand. While Jain was a minister without a portfolio since his arrest last year, Sisodia was holding 18 out of 33 ministries in the Kejriwal Cabinet.