New Delhi: In a fresh crisis within the AAP, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Satu-rday removed water and tourism minister Kapil Mishra from his Cabinet. A section within the party said that the chief minister had acted against Mr Mishra as he had rallied behind senior AAP leader Kumar Vishwas, who had criticised the party leadership for its defeat in the Delhi civic elections and the Assembly polls in Punjab and Goa.
However, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said that the minister was being removed for poor water management in the city. He told a news agency, “Water management was not working fine. Hence, Kapil Mishra has been removed from the post.”
Later in the evening, Mr Mishra reacted saying he was the only minister without a corruption charge and that there was no CBI inquiry against him. In a tweet, he said he exposed former chief minister Sheila Dikshit in the tanker mafia scam and had not given any post to any of his relatives.
In his tweet earlier, he had promised a “massive expose on the tanker scam tomorrow”. He said he had already briefed the chief minister about the “explosive details” and would make it public. Soon after, Mr Sisodia announced his sacking. Mr Kejriwal even retweeted a post saying Kailash Gehlot and Rajendra Gautam will be the new faces of the city Cabinet.
Mr Vishwas, who was recently accused by AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan of hobnobbing with the BJP and RSS and attempting to take control of the party, put out a cryptic tweet. “I want to assure the country and party volunteers that we will continue to raise our voice against corruption, within and without, irrespective of what the outcome is,” he wrote in Hindi.
Mr Mishra had joined AAP after quitting BJP and had won the Karawal Nagar Assembly seat by a margin of over 44,000 votes. Mr Kejriwal’s new Cabinet colleagues Mr Gautam represents Seemapuri constituency, while Mr Gehlot is an MLA from Najafgarh.
Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari claimed that Mr Mishra’s resignation establishes Kejriwal government’s involvement in the tanker scam. He said it is high time that the Delhi chief minister submits his resignation in the “water tanker corruption racket”.
