Abhinav Rajput
Declaring that he will not sit in the CM’s chair unless people gave him a “certificate of honesty”, Kejriwal told his party workers at the AAP headquarters on Sunday he would quit after two days with someone else from the party taking over as CM after a meeting of the legislative party.He ruled out former deputy CM Manish Sisodia succeeding him. He was accompanied by his wife, Sunita.
The entire cabinet will have to resign with him. The new leader of the legislative party will stake claim to form govt and pick a new council of ministers who will take oath of office. Majority will then have to be proved on the floor of the House.
Kejriwal said he would become CM and Manish Sisodia his deputy “only when people say we are honest”.
“Delhi elections are due in Feb (2025) but I demand that the elections be held in Nov along with Maharashtra…I will sit in the CM’s chair only after people give me a certificate of honesty. I want to go through the ‘agni pariksha’ (trial by fire) after coming out of jail,” he said, referring to Sita undergoing the test after Lord Ram and she returned from exile.
Experts, however, claimed that Kejriwal cannot call for early elections without first recommending dissolution of the assembly.
Kejriwal: If CMs are arrested, I urge them to run govt from jail
If that happens, it will be the prerogative of Election Commission to take a call on whether the elections could be held early. The assembly polls are due to be held in Feb 2025.
Alleging that BJP had tried to prove he was 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 to run their govt from jail,” he said.
“I didn’t resign (after arrest in the excise policy case) because I respect democracy and Constitution is supreme for me,” he said. Referring to his decision to quit as CM in 2014 over Jan Lokpal Bill, just 49 days after assuming power, the CM said, “I resigned then for my ideals. I do not have lust for power.”
Pointing out that the excise policy case will drag on for a long time, the CM said he will tell the people of Delhi to vote in his favour only if they considered him honest. “For me, BJP is not important, people are important,” he said.
“Our leaders Satyendar Jain and Amanatullah Khan are still in jail. I hope they come out soon,” he said 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.
Kejriwal said some people were saying that Supreme Court had imposed some conditions and that they won’t be able to do any work. “In the past 10 years, these people have left no stone unturned in imposing conditions. The LG imposed various conditions and the central govt snatched my power by imposing one law after another, but I did not let your work suffer. These conditions do not create any obstacle for us,” he said.
Sources in the party said the CM would leave his official residence on Flag Staff Road which was at the centre of a controversy with BJP accusing Kejriwal of spending excessively on its construction. That virtually rules out his wife, Sunita Kejriwal, succeeding him.
BJP and Congress, however, said Kejriwal had resigned out of compulsion and was trying to take the moral high ground. Leader of the opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta said that with restrictions imposed on his functioning by Supreme Court, Kejriwal will neither be able to attend office, nor sign any files. His resignation will allow him to focus on campaigning for the upcoming Haryana elections with the party looking to expand its footprint with the Delhi elections after that early next year.
Sources said there were several schemes and policies, such as Mahila Samman Nidhi Yojana – which promises Rs 1,000 as financial grant to women aged above 18 years — dearness allowance for daily wagers and new electric vehicle policy, among others that AAP govt would like to roll out. And the party is apprehensive that the LG would question Kejriwal calling important meetings and accessing official documents which may lead to a stalemate in governance.