- I will become chief minister, Sisodia deputy CM only when people say we are honest, says Kejriwal
- It is a PR stunt, says BJP; Congress calls it a ‘gimmick’
- Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit says there is no question of Kejriwal becoming the chief minister again
NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, SEPT 15
Arvind Kejriwal said he will resign as the Delhi chief minister after two days and would demand early polls as he vowed not to sit in CM’s chair till people give him a “certificate of honesty”.
Addressing a gathering here, CM Kejriwal said he is seeking early elections, in November.
He also announced that another AAP leader will be the Chief Minister till the elections conclude. He said the decision about the new CM will be taken in a few days.
“I will only sit on CM’s chair after people give me a certificate of honesty. Want to give ‘agnipariksha’ after coming out of jail,” said the Delhi CM, who was released on bail from Tihar jail on Friday.
Announcing his imminent resignation, the chief minister said he got justice from the legal court and now it is time to get justice from the people’s court.
“I will become chief minister, Sisodia deputy CM only when people say we are honest,” Kejriwal said.
Claiming that he and his party are honest, the Delhi CM said the BJP tried to prove him corrupt, and alleged that the saffron party cannot provide good schools and free electricity to people because they are corrupt. He asserted that only the AAP can stand against the BJP’s “conspiracies”.
“They slap false cases against non-BJP chief ministers. If they are arrested, I urge them not to resign but run the government from jail,” he said.
Saying that the excise policy case would go on for long, the chief minister said he wanted to ask the people of Delhi whether he is honest or guilty. Kejriwal asked people to vote in his favour only if they considered him honest.
Two days after he was granted bail and walked out of prison after six months, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched an all-out attack against the Narendra Modi government and said it “was more dictatorial than the British.”
Earlier, AAP leader and former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said, “The BJP drafted a fantasy story named the ‘liquor scam’. The Supreme Court gave bail to Arvind Kejriwal and ended that story… It is a happy ending for us and a sad ending for the BJP. They thought they would keep Arvind Kejriwal jailed till the Delhi elections but their stories were proven to be wrong in the court, and today Arvind Kejriwal and I are out of jail…”
It is clear that he wants to apply the Sonia Gandhi model: BJP national spokesperson
BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said Kejriwal understood that his image among the people of Delhi is not of an honest leader but of a corrupt leader.
“Under his PR stunt, he wants to restore his image. It is clear that he wants to apply the Sonia Gandhi model,” he said and added that Kejriwal wants to run the government from behind the scenes.
Calling AAP a corrupt party, he said, “They have understood today that the Aam Aadmi Party is losing the Delhi elections and the people of Delhi cannot vote in their name, so they want to make someone else a scapegoat.”
Dubbing it a “drama” BJP leader Harish Khurana sought to know why Kejriwal is not resigning right now.
Meanwhile, the Congress called the announcement “a gimmick.”
Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit said there is no question of Kejriwal becoming the chief minister again, and added that his party has been demanding the Delhi CM’s resignation for a long time.
“This is a mere gimmick. This happened for the first time when an elected leader came out of jail on bail, and was asked by the Supreme Court not to go to the CMO or sign any papers,” he said.
