Party officials say that Mishra, who is very close to AAP senior leader Kumar Vishwas, was removed from the cabinet because he was a "non-performer."
Post the MCD polls, the Arvind Kejriwal-led government has made some major cabinet changes. The party sacked Kapil Mishra as the tourism and water minister and made Kailash Gahlot, who represents the Najafgarh Assembly constituency, as the new water minister. Kejriwal also introduced Rajendra Pal Gautam, a legislator from Seemapuri, into the cabinet. Gautam is the Dalit face of the cabinet and has been given the portfolio of Sandeep Kumar, who was sacked over alleged sex tapes of his came out in the public.
Party officials say that Mishra, who is very close to AAP senior leader Kumar Vishwas, was removed from the cabinet because he was a "non-performer."
But sources within AAP stated that Mishra was removed as he had openly opposed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over alleged Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) tampering issue. They also added that Mishra was very close to Vishwas and was seen hobnobbing with him when the poet-turned-politician attacked the Chief Minister and his coterie over the debacle in Punjab and Goa assembly and Delhi municipal polls. He was also among those party MLAs who had signed a letter urging party chief Arvind Kejriwal to expel Khan for terming Vishwas as a "BJP agent".
Mishra has also been removed from the chairman post of the Delhi Jal Board. Reacting to the development, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, "The water management wasn't up to the mark, Kapil Mishra made a lot of effort. Kejriwal decided to bring Kailash Gehlot in his place."
Sisodia also said the move came after several colonies in the national Capital was reeling under a water crisis. "There were complaints about water crisis, water was not reaching the people. The bills, in spite of a subsidy, were high. Kapil was doing great work, but the problems were still there," Sisodia further pointed out. He also said that total two have been included in the Cabinet now. Kailash Gahlot is the AAP MLA from Najafgarh.
In the meantime, Mishra, the MLA from the Karawal Nagar constituency, also said that he is the only person in the cabinet who is not "tainted" and also had no CBI case against him. Taking to social media, he claimed that he would make a 'massive expose' in the tanker scam on Sunday. In a series of tweets, he said that he had informed Kejriwal about the scam on Saturday morning.
Coming to his sacking, Mishra said that he had not been removed due to debacle of the party in the municipal corporation but that he was not informed of the decision. "As per my knowledge, it was taken unilaterally by Kejriwal. The Cabinet or the Political Affairs Committee (the AAP's top decision-making body) was not involved," said Mishra.
The party has witnessed a severe infighting that recently ensued a humiliating defeat at the hands of the BJP in the MCD elections.
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