Amid Aam Aadmi Party MLA Vinod Kumar Binny recording his strong resentment over his exclusion from the list of MLAs to be sworn in as Delhi Ministers, the party finalised the Council of Ministers.
Manish Sisodia, AAP’s youngest MLA Rakhi Birla, lawyer Somnath Bharti, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Satyendra Jain and Girish Soni are in the list of the MLAs sent to the Lt. Governor by Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday. Sources in the AAP said Mr. Binny was offered the post of Parliamentary Secretary to the Chief Minister but he rejected it. The sources expressed surprise as Mr. Binny’s brainchild, the institution of gram sabha implemented in his municipal ward in Lakshmi Nagar, was picked by Mr. Kejriwal as a model for implementing development works in the capital.Mr. Binny was reportedly angry at two relatively non-entities, Mr. Jain and Mr. Soni, being preferred over him.Talking to journalists outside Mr. Kejriwal’s residence at Kaushambi in Ghaziabad, where the names of ministers was finalised, party spokesperson Mr. Sisodia said he had no knowledge of any rift in the party over formation of the Cabinet. When insisted, he said: “Only Arvindji will tell about it.”
Mr. Kejriwal is expected to take over as Chief Minister of Delhi and will take oath on December 26 at Ramlila Maidan, the nerve centre of Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption agitation in 2011.