Five months before his tenure is set to expire, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Sunday that he will resign in two days.
The Aam Aadmi Party chief made the surprise announcement at the party office, where he was addressing party workers. He had walked out of Tihar jail on Friday after the Supreme Court granted him bail in CBI’s Delhi excise policy case.
“After two days, I am going to resign from the post of CM. I will not sit on the CM’s seat till the people elect me and send me to power again.
I will go to the people and ask them for their vote. Agar janta ko lagta hai Kejriwal imandar hai, to mai CM ki seat mai jaa kar baithunga. Nahi toh nahi baithunga (If the people think I am honest, only then will I sit on the CM’s seat),” Kejriwal announced.
Kejriwal also ruled out the possibility of former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia being named chief minister.
He said that after his resignation, he would hold a high-level meeting and announce the new CM.
During his address, Kejriwal also asked that Delhi Assembly elections, which have been held in February since 2015, be announced alongside the Maharashtra elections.
Likening his decision to Sita’s agnipariksha (trial by fire) in the Ramayana, Kejriwal said, “Inhone mere upar aarop lagaya hai. Jab bhagwaan Ram vanvas se aaye the, Sita mayia ko agnipariksha deni padi. Aaj mai agnipariksha dene ja raha hoon (They have made allegations against me. When Lord Ram came back from the forests, Sita had to undergo a trial by fire. Today, I am doing the same).”
This is not the first time that Kejriwal has resigned from the post of CM. In 2014, during his first and short-lived tenure as CM, he resigned over differences with the Congress, which had lent outside support to the then AAP government.
“2014 mai maine resign kia…aapne chuna mujhe…aaj mai phir keh raha hoon agar main imandar hoon toh mujhe vote de kar wapas bhejna (I had resigned in 2014… but you elected me… Today I am asking you again, if I am honest, vote for me and return me to this post,” he said.
