The suave and influential Kailash Gehlot, the third and by far the most important cabinet minister in the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government, is set to take on the onerous task of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who resigned from his cabinet post on Tuesday. Had given After being arrested by CBI
The 49-year-old Gehlot has been the face of reforms initiated by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the transport sector, including a rapid transition to electric mobility, training of women bus drivers and induction of trains to reduce the major issue of Delhi’s air pollution. to do is included. passes for women commuting via state-run buses, among others.
Hours after Sisodia resigned from the post, AAP on Tuesday evening announced that the portfolios of deputy chief minister would be split between Gehlot and Raj Kumar Anand.
After Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, who were also picked up by the central probe agencies and are in jail for the last nine months, Gehlot held the most important portfolios in the city government.
Jain held eight ministries – including some of the most important such as Health, Home, Public Works Department (PWD), Water and Power – which were handed over to Sisodia after his arrest. Till Tuesday, Sisodia held 18 out of 33 government departments.
Gehlot, who till now was in charge of six portfolios after Sisodia’s resignation, has been given charge of eight more departments, taking his tally to 14. This makes him the only minister after Sisodia to head these multiple portfolios.
Gehlot has so far held six portfolios of Transport, Revenue, Law, Administrative Reforms, Women and Child Development and Information and Technology. Apart from these, the minister has now been handed over Sisodia’s most important portfolios – finance, planning, PWD, power, housing, water, urban development, irrigation and flood control (I&FC) and all other departments not specifically allocated Has gone. Any minister.
Clearly, Gehlot now has his work cut out for him as Delhi’s budget for 2023-24 is to be presented in the third week of March. With the responsibility of the Finance Department, only Gehlot will present the budget in the Delhi Assembly.
News18 had reported on Tuesday that Kejriwal had already widely speculated about the arrest of his deputy, Gehlot had attended all budget document meetings as well as other important projects since February 19. When the first summons was issued from CBI.
According to a senior AAP functionary, Gehlot has been entrusted by the central leadership to complete various important projects and handle portfolios successfully.
A close confidante of Kejriwal, Gehlot has been a cabinet minister for two terms, with his first portfolio – public transport – since then, apart from the new years. He won his first assembly election in 2015 from the Najafgarh constituency in West Delhi.
Gehlot is a lawyer by profession and is practicing in the apex court as well as the Delhi High Court. Born in a Jat family, he belongs to Najafgarh’s Mitrau village, which is home to a large number of farmers and traders, making him an important link of the party to the rural areas in the capital.
Gehlot joined the Aam Aadmi Party in 2014, though he had been working closely with Kejriwal for three to four years before that. Initiating various schemes of the government including the ambitious Electric Vehicle (EV) policy and free travel for women in state-run buses, her stature within the government rose significantly during the second term, an important pillar and now a key figure in the Delhi government new power center
However, he has also had run-ins with the investigating agencies. In 2018, he came under the scanner of the Income Tax Department which conducted searches at various locations linked to him in an alleged tax evasion case.
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