New Delhi: Turning the tables on his political rivals, particularly the BJP, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal delivered a Sunday shocker by announcing that he will resign from his post in the next 48 hours. The AAP supremo vowed not to sit in the CM’s chair till the people give him a “certificate of honesty”. The announcement came two days after the Supreme Court granted him bail in the liquor policy corruption case. Mr Kejriwal said that a meeting of AAP MLAs will be held in the next two days to choose his successor. The BJP, which was taken completely by surprise by Mr Kejriwal’s manoeuvres, adopted an aggressive stance by describing the announcement as a “PR stunt”.
Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva challenged him to resign immediately along with his Cabinet. “Why does he need two days? He will make a U-turn after two days and say his MLAs have asked him to continue (as chief minister).”
The Congress, however, welcomed the move, saying that he should have tendered his resignation six months ago so that the people of Delhi would not have suffered a serious crisis. Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav demanded that a new chief minister should be appointed as soon as possible.
Mr Kejriwal, who reached the party headquarters on Sunday along with his wife Sunita to address party workers, said he would become the chief minister and Manish Sisodia would be back as deputy CM “only when the people say we are honest”.
“The 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 in the CM’s chair after the people give me a certificate of honesty. Want to give ‘agnipariksha’ (trial by fire) after coming out of jail,” he said.
Alleging that the BJP tried to prove him corrupt, Mr 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… I didn't resign (after arrest) because I respect democracy and the Constitution is supreme for me,” Mr Kejriwal said, and asserted that it was only the AAP that can stand up to the BJP’s “conspiracies”.
While addressing the AAP workers, Mr Kejriwal referred to his 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 will drag on for a long time, the chief minister claimed, and said that 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, the people are important,” Mr Kejriwal said.
About his time in jail, he referred to letters written by freedom fighter Bhagat Singh while in British captivity, and added: “I wrote only one letter to the lieutenant-governor from Tihar and was issued a warning.” He added: “Our freedom fighters were allowed meetings with colleagues but my party colleague Sandeep Pathak was not allowed to meet me in jail,” he said.
