Newly-inducted Delhi Cabinet ministers, Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi , took charge of their respective departments at the Delhi secretariat on Friday.

Bharadwaj has been assigned the responsibility of Health, Water and Industries and Urban Development while Atishi has been allotted the portfolios of Education, PWD, Power and Tourism.

“Today, I took the charge at Delhi Secretariat. We have started taking foreword the work of Manish Sisodia ji and Satyendar Jain ji to make the city a better state to live in. It is our resolve to serve the people of Delhi by following the instructions of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ji with staunch honesty,” said Bhardwaj after taking the charge.

Both the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs were sworn in as cabinet ministers in the Delhi government on Thursday, replacing Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain who resigned on February 28.

Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena administered the oath of office to the newly-inducted ministers in the presence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at a swearing-in ceremony held at Raj Niwas.

President Droupadi Murmu had accepted their appointments on Tuesday.

“In terms of the notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, government of India, Atishi Marlena and Saurabh Bharadwaj have been appointed as Ministers in the National Capital Territory of Delhi,” read the official statement from the General Administration Department.

The development came after President Droupadi Murmu accepted the resignations of former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday.

In a latest development a day before the hearing of his bail plea, Sisodia was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday in connection with the 2021-22 Delhi excise policy case.

The ED made the arrest after questioning Sisodia for hours inside the Tihar jail as part of its money laundering probe into the alleged irregularities in the 2021-22 excise policy of Delhi, officials said.

Sisodia was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26 in the same case and he is currently in judicial custody till March 20.

Sisodia was taken to Tihar jail on Monday after the Rouse Avenue Court sent him to judicial custody till March 20.

AAP leader Jain is currently lodged in judicial custody in connection with an alleged money laundering case registered against him by the ED. Jain was arrested by the ED on May 30 last year in an alleged money laundering case.

President Murmu on Tuesday appointed Atishi and Bharadwaj as ministers in the Delhi cabinet on the advice of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, with effect from the date they are sworn in, stated the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Kejriwal had forwarded the names to the Lieutenant Governor for their appointment to the Cabinet.

 Atishi represents the Kalkaji constituency and has been a key member of Sisodia’s education team. She had also contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the East Delhi constituency and lost to BJP’s Gautam Gambhir.

Bharadwaj, the party’s national spokesperson, had served the Delhi Jal Board as its vice chairman. The legislator from Greater Kailash was also a minister during the first stint of the AAP government.