Who is Mukesh Kumar Ahlawat, AAP's tactical pick as Delhi minister ahead of polls?

AAP has picked its MLA Mukesh Kumar Ahlawat as the newest entrant to the Delhi Cabinet.

The Aam Aadmi Party is set to induct Mukesh Ahlawat as a fresh face in the reconstituted Cabinet under Chief Minister Atishi. Of the five ministers set to take oath in the new AAP government, Ahlawat will be the only new face while four others will retain their posts.

Atishi and her cabinet will take oath of office on September 21. Gopal Rai, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Kailash Gehlot, and Imran Hussain will continue in their roles. Ahlawat is likely to fill in the vacancy left by the resignation of Social Welfare Minister Raj Kumar Anand.

A first-time MLA from Delhi’s Sultanpur Majra constituency, is a Delhi native and did his schooling in Pitampura. A businessman by profession, he declared movable assets worth approximately Rs 60 lakh and immovable assets worth Rs 5.6 crore in his 2020 election affidavit.

Having won the seat in 2020, he first contested elections on a BSP ticket in 2013 but lost. He subsequently joined the AAP and was fielded from the reserved seat in 2020. He replaced Sandeep Kumar, who was removed from the party and the Cabinet in 2016 amid outrage over a CD that purportedly showed him in a compromising position with a woman.Facing rape allegations, he received a clean-chit later.

His stint as an MLA has seen Ahlawat emerge as a vocal and active face of the party, particularly after the arrest of former CM Arvind Kejriwal when he held community meetings to deliver “Kejriwal's message” to residents. The party’s co-in-charge for Rajasthan, he is likely to handle the Social Justice portfolio.

AAP’s choice of Ahlawat as a new entrant in the Delhi cabinet is a calculated move keeping the Delhi elections, scheduled to be held in February next year. Hailing from the Dalit community, AAP expects Ahlawat’s elevation to help recover any loss of face from the exit of two Dalit leaders from the party in recent months.

While Raaj Kumar Anand, who served as the Social Welfare minister, quit ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and joined the BSP, another senior Dalit leader, Rajendra Pal Gautam went ahead and joined the Congress. Both had left the AAP accusing it of “neglecting Dalits”.

With Assembly elections in Delhi less than five months away, the AAP would hope to have the support of all sections by its side. Dalits constitute a significant 12 percent of Delhi’s population and have been known to have supported AAP in previous elections. In the 2020 Assembly polls, the AAP had won all the 12 SC-reserved seats in Delhi.