NEW DELHI, Sept 15: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday announced that he would resign after two days and sought early polls in the national capital while vowing not to sit in CM’s chair till people give him a “certificate of honesty”.
Rival BJP hit back at the AAP supremo, terming his move a “PR exercise” and a “drama”.
Kejriwal, released on bail from Tihar on Friday in the excise policy graft case, said he would hold a meeting of AAP MLAs in the next couple of days and a party leader would take over as chief minister.
The AAP national convener, who reached the party headquarters here on Sunday along with his wife Sunita to address party workers, said he would become chief minister and Manish Sisodia deputy CM “only when people say we are honest”.
Sisodia got bail in the excise policy case last month.
Following Kejriwal’s unexpected announcement, the names of his wife Sunita and Delhi Ministers Atishi and Gopal Rai as his probable replacement are doing the rounds.
“I am going to resign after two days and ask people whether I am honest. Till they respond, I won’t sit on CM’s chair,” Kejriwal said.
“Delhi elections are due in February but I demand that the elections in the national capital be held in November along with Maharashtra… I will only sit on CM’s chair after people give me a certificate of honesty. Want to give ‘agnipariksha’ (trial by fire) after coming out of jail.”
Alleging the BJP tried to prove him corrupt, Kejriwal claimed the saffron party could not provide good schools and free electricity to people because they were corrupt. “We are honest,” he asserted.
“They slap false cases against non-BJP chief ministers. If the CMs are arrested, I urge them not to resign but run their government from jail,” the Delhi chief minister said.
“I didn’t resign (after arrest in excise policy case) because I respect democracy and the Constitution is supreme for me,” Kejriwal said and asserted that it is only the AAP that can stand up to the BJP’s “conspiracies”.
Slamming Kejriwal over his resignation announcement, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said, “The AAP national convenor’s announcement is a part of his plan to make his wife Sunita Kejriwal chief minister… Arvind Kejriwal has done a PhD on how to make a virtue out of necessity.”
He alleged that Kejriwal is enacting the resignation “drama” because the court did not acquit him in the (excise policy scam) case and instead granted him a conditional bail that turned him into a “ceremonial minister from the chief minister”.
While addressing AAP workers, Kejriwal referred to him quitting the chief minister’s post in 2014 over the Jan Lokpal Bill, just 49 days after assuming power, and said, “I resigned then for my ideals. I do not have a lust for power.”
The excise policy case would drag on for a long time, the chief minister claimed and said he wanted to ask the people of Delhi whether he was honest or guilty.
He asked people to vote in his favour only if they considered him honest. “For me, the BJP is not important, people are important,” Kejriwal said.
“Our leaders Satyendar Jain and Amanatullah Khan are still in jail. I hope they come out soon,” he told AAP workers as he thanked God “who was with us through difficulties.”
About his time in jail, Kejriwal referred to letters written by freedom fighter Bhagat Singh while in British captivity and said, “I wrote only one letter to the Lieutenant Governor from Tihar and was issued a warning.”
“Our freedom fighters were allowed meetings with colleagues but my party colleague Sandeep Pathak was not allowed to meet me in jail,” he said.
An AAP functionary said that when the chief minister was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21, his wife Sunita Kejriwal played a crucial role in the party’s campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi, Gujarat and Haryana.
“Since she is also a former Indian Revenue Officer, she understands the functioning of government and bureaucracy. There would be no opposition among party leaders if she is appointed chief minister of Delhi,” he said.
About Atishi, another party functionary said she has been in charge of 14 departments, the highest among the ministers. She has been playing a crucial role in the functioning of the Delhi government since Kejriwal’s arrest.
The name of another minister, Gopal Rai, who is the AAP’s Delhi unit president, is also likely to be considered for the chief minister’s post in the meeting of party MLAs. (With inputs from PTI)
