Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal resigned as the Delhi chief minister on Tuesday.
He submitted his resignation letter to Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena.
Earlier on Tuesday, the party announced that Delhi minister Atishi will replace Kejriwal as chief minister till the next Assembly elections are held in the national capital.
This came after Kejriwal said on Sunday that he would quit the post in two days and return to the office only if elected again.
Kejriwal’s statement came two days after he was released on bail in the Delhi liquor policy case. The Supreme Court had granted him bail on Friday.
#WATCH | After Arvind Kejriwal resigns as Delhi CM, AAP leader Gopal Rai says, “… Arvind Kejriwal has submitted his resignation to Delhi LG… All MLAs have together decided upon nominating Atishi as the new CM… Atishi has staked claim to form the government…” pic.twitter.com/gSC1ow2dvy
— ANI (@ANI) September 17, 2024
Addressing party workers in the capital on Sunday, Kejriwal said: “After two days, I will resign as the chief minister. And I will not sit on the chief minister’s chair till the people pronounce their verdict.”
Kejriwal demanded that the next Delhi elections be held in November along with the Maharashtra Assembly polls. The Delhi polls are scheduled for February.
On Tuesday, party leader Gopal Rai reiterated the demand to hold the polls early.
He also said that the lieutenant governor had been informed about the decision of the AAP’s Legislative Party to make Atishi the chief minister. Atishi has staked her claim to form the government, Rai added.
Kejriwal first served as the Delhi chief minister between December 2013 and February 2014. He became the chief minister again in February 2015 when the Aam Aadmi Party won the Assembly elections and retained the position after the 2019 polls.
On Friday, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan granted Kejriwal bail on the grounds that the chargesheet had been filed in the case and that the trial was unlikely to be completed in the near future.
The bail conditions included Kejriwal not being allowed to visit the chief minister’s office or the Delhi secretariat.
Kant held that Kejriwal’s prolonged imprisonment constituted an “unjust deprivation of liberty” but maintained that there were no procedural irregularities in his arrest. Bhuyan, however, said that the chief minister’s arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the liquor policy case was unjustified.
The Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate have alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party government modified Delhi’s now-scrapped liquor policy by increasing the commission for wholesalers from 5% to 12%. This allegedly facilitated the receipt of bribes from wholesalers who had a substantial market share and turnover.
Also read: Why has Arvind Kejriwal decided to resign as Delhi chief minister?
