Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with his cabinet ministers. (Photo: Press Trust of India)
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will not hold any ministry directly, but plans a powerful Chief Minister's Office as the nerve-centre of the new state government, not unlike the Prime Minister's Office in the Narendra Modi government.
The chief minister, whose six-minister cabinet begins work today, will appoint experts from various sectors in the CMO, drawn from both within his Aam Aadmi Party and outside, to help implement the party's 70-point action plan for Delhi.
In another Modi-like move, Mr Kejriwal has instructed all departments of the Delhi government to make presentations to him this Thursday on how they will implement AAP's action plan.
Sources said legislators appointed to the CMO will be given the position of "parliamentary secretary". AAP has been criticised for not inducting a single woman minister and will attempt to correct that by including women experts in Mr Kejriwal's CMO.
On Saturday, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said Mr Kejriwal will "oversee the work of the ministers and connect with the people." The chief minister, he said, will devote himself towards finding solutions to Delhi's problems.
Sources said Mr Kejriwal, who was in charge of crucial ministries like finance, home and power in his last stint, wanted to be relieved from departmental work so he could focus on connecting with the people and revamping the system.
That's why the post of a Deputy Chief Minister was created for Mr Sisodia, who will hold multiple ministries and has also been assigned the task of handling all the departmental work of the new administration, sources said.
Delhi has never had a Deputy Chief Minister before.