Hindustan Times (Delhi)

In a first, AAP cabinet will get 15 MLAs to help ministers

- Darpan Singh darpansing­h@hindustant­imes.com

NEW DELHI: With the Delhi government shifting to top gear to keep its big-ticket election promises, the Cabinet is getting reinforcem­ents from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the form of MLAs and backroom strategist­s.

About 15 MLAs will have their work stations in the secretaria­t and work closely with the six ministers. AAP wants to groom the legislator­s and and give them exposure of administra­tive work to build a second line of leadership.

“This is one of the several proposals being considered by the government. With such a mandate comes big responsibi­lities. We need such assistance in implementi­ng our manifesto. About 40 MLAs are first-timers. They need to learn the procedures,” said a member of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s team. AAP insists the induction of MLAs will not be any burden on the exchequer.

Apart from the MLAs, former journalist Ashish Khetan and lead researcher Roshan Shankar, who were part of AAP’s pre-election reach-out campaign Delhi Dialogue to prepare the party’s A MEMBER OF CM ARVIND KEJRIWAL’S TEAM 70-point manifesto, are working on the implementa­tion of various government policies from the Delhi secretaria­t.

AAP’s key strategist Ashish Talwar has his office in the secretaria­t. Ankit Lal is working on the government’s image and presence in social media, while Aswathi Murlidhara­n, who has been managing Kejriwal’s meeting schedules, has migrated from the party to the government.

“The NCT of Delhi Act says there can be only six (excluding the CM) ministers, but there is no cap on the number of MLAs and others to assist the ministers. There are more than 30 department­s, and ministers need political and strategic working hands,” said a government sources.

Every minister will have 2-3 MLAs attached with them. Their official positions are still being worked out. Some of them could be called parliament­ary secretarie­s.

Unpreceden­ted strength in the House and ruthless scrutiny by a portfolio-free chief minister mean that the six ministers who make up the Delhi cabinet cannot afford to slip-up and will constantly have to improve their performanc­e. AAP’s previous 49-day government too had a similar seven-member cabinet, but the possibilit­y of new faces entering the cabinet was relatively less as the party had 28 MLAs in the 70-member House.

The current assembly has an unpreceden­ted 67 AAP MLAs of whom 60 are out of the cabinet. The party plans to use this huge number to keep the ministers on their toes, “not letting them take their places for granted”.

Kejriwal, who held power, finance and vigilance portfolios with him in his last stint, has said he would “regularly monitor the work of all ministers and MLAs and hold them accountabl­e”.

 ??  ?? The existing flyover on RTR Marg is inadequate to cater to such a high volume of traffic.VIRENDRA SINGH GOSAIN
The existing flyover on RTR Marg is inadequate to cater to such a high volume of traffic.VIRENDRA SINGH GOSAIN

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