AAP's Arvind Kejriwal to take oath as Delhi CM on December 28

NEW DELHI: Clearing the decks for the formation of an Aam Aadmi Party-led minority government, President Pranab Mukherjee accepted Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung’s proposal in this regard on Wednesday. AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal will be sworn in as the Capital’s chief minister at noon on Saturday at Ramlila Maidan, and he will have to prove his majority on the floor of the House by January 3.

The date for the swearing-in ceremony was finalised at a meeting between Chief Secretary DM Spolia and Kejriwal at the latter’s residence in Ghaziabad on Wednesday after which the AAP convenor invited the city’s electorate to attend the event at Ramlila Maidan on Twitter. “It is not my victory, it is their (people’s) victory. I am not forming govt, it is the people of Delhi who r forming govt. It is ur ceremony. All of u came to Ramlila Maidan in Aug 2011. We again assemble at Ramlila Maidan. Together, we’ll achieve our dream of corruption-free India.”

AAP leader Kumar Vishwas said the party has also invited Anna Hazare for the ceremony, along with Kiran Bedi and Santosh Hegde, who worked with Kejriwal for the Lokpal campaign as part of the former Team Anna.

Kejriwal will lead the youngest cabinet ever and his close aide Manish Sisodia is expected to be assigned an important portfolio. Rakhi Birla, 26, will be the youngest member of the cabinet. Somnath Bharti, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Girish Soni and Satyendra Jain are the others who will also be sworn in along with Kejriwal.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the party managed to defuse a potentially embarrassing crisis as Kejriwal and AAP MLA Vinod Kumar Binny denied any rift over the distribution of ministerial berths. “There is no rift between me and the party. There is nothing that I was angry about after being denied a post in the ministry,” Binny was cited as saying by PTI.

“Binny came to me last evening. He told me he does not want a ministerial berth and that he was here for a mission. Binny said he has conveyed to the media that he was not upset,” said Kejriwal. This was day after the MLA walked away in a huff from a meeting at Kejriwal’s residence on Tuesday, reportedly unhappy over being offered the job of being the CM’s political secretary. According to sources, AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Kumar Vishwas were sent to Binny’s residence late on Tuesday night to pacify him.