NEW DELHI, Sep 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 the CM’s chair till people give him a “certificate of honesty”.
The 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 chief minister “only when people say we are honest”.
Sisodia got bail in the excise policy case last month.
Following Kejriwal’s 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.
The Delhi Assembly’s term ends on February 23 next year and the polls are expected to be held sometime early February.
Seeking a referendum on his politics of honesty, Kejriwal pointed out that Delhi will go to polls in a few months.
“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 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”.
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.” (PTI)
