Delhi CM Kejriwal recommends Raaj Kumar Anand for Cabinet berth after Rajendra Pal Gautam's resignation

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said he has recommended Patel Nagar MLA Raaj Kumar Anand’s name to the lieutenant governor for including him in the Cabinet, days after Rajendra Pal Gautam resigned as a minister following a row over his presence at a religious conversion event.

Gautam, who was minister for the departments of social welfare, SC and ST, registrar of co-operative societies and gurudwara elections, had resigned on 9 October.

During a media briefing on the achievements of the Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi (DDCD) in the last seven years, Kejriwal said he has written to Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) V K Saxena recommending Anand’s name.

Like Gautam, Anand, a first-time MLA, is also from the Jatav community.

He is a postgraduate in political science and had joined the anti-corruption movement along with his wife Veena Anand in 2011. In the 2013 assembly elections, his wife had won from the Patel Nagar constituency.

In the 2015 assembly polls, she was replaced by Aam Aadmi Party leader Hazari Lal Chauhan for the seat. In 2020, Raaj Kumar Anand contested the assembly polls from the seat and won it.

Gautam had said that he is resigning as minister as he does not want “his leader (Kejriwal) or the AAP to be in trouble because of him”.

The row erupted over his presence at the event where around 10,000 Dalits converted to Buddhism.

President Droupadi Murmu had accepted Gautam’s resignation.

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