Mukesh Ahlawat to be new face in Cabinet, others to be retained

Rai, Bharadwaj, Gahlot, and Hussain will be part of the new Cabinet as well; Ahlawat to be the new Dalit face in AAP government after Raaj Kumar Anand

First-time MLA Mukesh Ahlawat will be the new face in the Delhi Cabinet headed by Atishi, who will be sworn in as Chief Minister on September 21, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said on Thursday.

Senior AAP leaders Gopal Rai, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Kailash Gahlot and Imran Hussain, who are part of outgoing Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Council of Ministers, will be part of the new Cabinet as well. The Delhi Cabinet can have a maximum of seven Ministers, including the Chief Minister, but AAP has so far named only six. With the Delhi Assembly poll due in February next year, the new Ministers’ tenure will be brief.

Dalit representation

Mr. Ahlawat, 48, was elected from Sultanpur Majra Assembly constituency, a reserved seat for Scheduled Castes, in 2020. Of the 70 Assembly constituencies in Delhi, 12 are reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates. He was chosen over many other Dalit faces in the party, including Kondli MLA Kuldeep Kumar, who is one of the party vice-presidents in Delhi.

According to a party insider, Mr. Ahlawat, who belongs to the Jatav community, was picked for the ministerial post because the Jatav population in Delhi outnumbers people from the Valmiki community to which Mr. Kumar belongs.

Mr. Ahlawat will be the new Dalit face in the Cabinet after Raaj Kumar Anand’s resignation in April. For AAP, a lot is riding on Mr. Ahlawat as a Minister, as the last two Dalit Ministers, Mr. Anand and Rajendra Pal Gautam, left the party, accusing it of neglecting the community. While Mr. Anand joined the BJP in July, Mr. Gautam joined the Congress last month.

A businessman, Mr. Ahlawat began his political journey with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), contesting elections unsuccessfully in 2008 and 2013. He joined AAP in 2017 and contested the election in 2020. “I was inspired by Kejriwalji’s work. That is why I joined AAP. Today, CM sir called me at 10 a.m. and said he has recommended a Cabinet berth for me. I was extremely surprised and since then people have been coming to my house. Now, whichever department or responsibility is given to me, I will work hard under our new Chief Minister Atishi’s guidance and fulfil everybody’s expectations,” Mr. Ahlawat told The Hindu.

He said that he will be meeting Mr. Kejriwal on Friday. “I thank Arvind Kejriwal for showing trust in me. I hope I’ll be able to fulfil his expectations. I’m an aam aadmi (common man) and will continue to be an aam aadmi. We are sad that he has resigned from the CM’s post. We are standing firm with him and will make him the CM of Delhi again,” said Mr. Ahlawat.

With the new Cabinet set to take the oath of office along with Ms. Atishi on the same day, Mr. Ahlawat said apart from the other issues, he will also focus on the Dalit community’s welfare. “If I’m given the portfolio [Social Welfare] of Raaj Kumar Anand, then I will restart the Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Yojana and make sure that Dalits and people from the backward communities get loans, besides creating new schemes.”

When asked about the previous Dalit Ministers of the party alleging that Dalits are neglected by AAP, he said, “In every AAP office, our government has Babasaheb’s photo. There is no neglect. The blue colour in our party flag represents B.R. Ambedkar’s ideals and the basanti (yellow) stands for those of Bhagat Singh.”

Commenting on AAP’s announcement, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said, “Ms. Atishi has been a failed Minister. She failed all the departments she held. So did Kejriwal government Ministers like Kailash Gahlot, Gopal Rai, Saurabh Bharadwaj, and Imran Hussain. In such a scenario, Delhiites don’t have much expectations from Atishi as a Chief Minister.”

Published - September 20, 2024 01:01 am IST