Jailed former Delhi deputy minister and AAP senior leader Manish Sisodia’s official residence in Delhi has been allotted to newly state Education Minister Atishi, a notice issued by Public Works Department Secretariat read on Friday. Sisodia’s family has been given five days till March 21 to vacate Bungalow No. AB-17, Mathura Road, Delhi.
The letter added that only 15 days retention period is permissible under the relevant rules.
Manish Sisodia resigned from the Delhi cabinet on 28 February, just two days after he was arrested by the CBI on 26 February in the excise policy case. On the same day, minister Satyendar Jain, who is in jail since May last year after his arrest in a money laundering case.
The AAP government’s hasty move to ask Sisodi to vacate his bungalow has left Netizens wondering if Arvind Kejriwal, the party’s chief, had abandoned his close friend Manish Sisodia.
Sharing a video of Arvind Kejriwal refusing to talk about Sisodia in public, alongside a PWD notice issued to Sisodia to vacate the bungalow, BJP leader Shehzad Poonawala wrote, “Kejriwal ka Motto Kaam khatam, paisa hajam, Manish Sisodia kaun ho tum ? After publicly snubbing Manish Sisodia now Manish Sisodia’s official residence, Bunglow No. AB-17, Mathura Road allotted to newly-sworn in Minister Atishi; Sisodia’s family given 5 days, that is till…
Kejriwal ka Motto
— Shehzad Jai Hind (@Shehzad_Ind) March 17, 2023
Kaam khatam, paisa hajam, Manish Sisodia kaun ho tum ?
After publicly snubbing Manish Sisodia now Manish Sisodia’s official residence, Bunglow No. AB-17, Mathura Road allotted to newly-sworn in Minister Atishi; Sisodia’s family given 5 days, that is till… https://t.co/klhrBvKdMF pic.twitter.com/zqyhr1By7d
BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya pointed out that Manish Sisodia was removed from the post of minister immediately after his arrest, while Jain was kept as minister for 9 mothers after his arrest. He also said that before Sisodia’s arrest, Arvind Kejrwal had promised to look after him and his family, but now his family has been asked to vacate the govt house so that it can be given to Aatishi.
Kejriwal had promise to look after Manish Sisodia and his family. But he was removed as minister almost immediately, while Satyendra Jain was retained as minister for 9 months, when in jail. Now Sisodia has been asked to vacate the bungalow so that it can be allotted to Aatishi. pic.twitter.com/3O7fmUHZw8
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) March 17, 2023
Sharing the same video of the Delhi PM, another Twitter user @delhichatter quipped in Hindi that Kejriwal dropped Sisodia out of his life and the party like a hot potato. “He threw Manish uncle out of tea like a fly,” he wrote in Hindi.
इसने तो चाय से मक्खी की तरह निकाल फेंका मनीश चाचा को 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/pjXkbBTkVz
— Delhi Se Hoon BC (@delhichatter) March 16, 2023
“Kejriwal ditched Sisodia,” @Mohit_ksr captioned a funny meme he shared on Twitter.
Kejriwal ditched Sisodia 😂🤣 pic.twitter.com/pBVSccXWDX
— Mohit Babu 🇮🇳 (@Mohit_ksr) March 17, 2023
Some others also tweeted funny memes in response to Kejriwal’s treatment towards his close confidante Manish Sisodia.
Manish chacha ki zubani pic.twitter.com/lIKiwkI9Ma
— Ashish (@brb_memes7) March 16, 2023
Bechara Manish 😭 pic.twitter.com/8MV9NBGEw0
— Vishal Deshmukh (@kaafiAverage) March 16, 2023
The dumping of Sisodia by Kejriwal is faster than anything we ever saw in Star Trek.
— Buffet (@BuffetdaGreat) March 17, 2023
“Warp speed, Atishi!” pic.twitter.com/NFncTrMCzU
Kejriwal alloted Sisodia’s bungalow to Atishi. pic.twitter.com/CfOPVdteHU
— Krishna (@Atheist_Krishna) March 17, 2023
Some people posted unparliamentary tweets that we can’t publish here.
Meanwhile, according to the official letter from the Public Works Department dated March 14, Atishi has been asked to give her acceptance within eight days of the issuance of the letter.
The bungalow which Sisodia has been directed to vacate was allotted to him in 2015 when the AAP government came to power in Delhi. Justifying the AAP Government’s decision an official said, “It is a routine exercise. Since Sisodia had resigned, his bungalow will be reallotted to Atishi.”
Notably, after the resignations of Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, both currently in Tihar jail in alleged corruption and money laundering cases, respectively, two Cabinet berths had fallen vacant. Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj were later inducted into the Cabinet.
Sisodia was arrested by CBI on February 26 in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2021-22. Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court on 6 March had sent Delhi’s former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to judicial custody in Tihar jail till 20 March, in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.
ED arrested Sisodia on March 9 and on March 10 had gotten his 7-day custody which expired on 17 March. The ED filed a petition seeking an extension of Sisodia’s custody, which the court heard today and extended by 5 more days.
