New Delhi, Sep 19 (PTI) Kailash Gahlot, who is part of the outgoing cabinet led by Arvind Kejriwal, enjoys the trust of the AAP supremo and was one of the contenders for the chief minister's post along with Atishi.
The 50-year-old MLA comes from a rural background and is a prominent Jat leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), who twice won from the Najafgarh constituency in 2015 and 2020.
He won by a slender margin of 1,555 votes in 2015 but went on to consolidate it in 2020 as he boosted the victory margin to 6,231 votes and holds the distinction of winning from the seat twice in a row.
In 2017, he was inducted in the cabinet after the resignation of Kapil Mishra.
Gahlot, who completed his Bachelors and Master's degrees in Law from Delhi University, held crucial portfolios of Transport, Women and Child Development, Home and IT.
He is credited with introducing the Electric Vehicle Policy in Delhi and many other initiatives, including the introduction of free travel for women in buses and faceless services.
He enjoys a cordial relationship with bureaucracy and Lt Governor V K Saxena. He was nominated by the LG to hoist the national flag on the occasion of Independence Day in the absence of Kejriwal, who was lodged in Tihar at that time.
Kejriwal had recommended Atishi's name for hoisting the tricolour but Saxena picked Gahlot, since he holds the portfolio of Home.
Following the arrest of former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia last year in excise policy case by the CBI, he was given the Finance portfolio for a brief while and even presented the 2023-24 budget of Delhi.
The Najafgarh MLA is seen as someone who stays away from political blame game and mudslinging, and focusses on his work.