Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has resigned from the post of Chief Minister today according to the announcement made on Sunday. In the evening, he met Delhi Deputy Governor Vineet Kumar Saxena before formally resigning. At a meeting of AAP MLAs, 43-year-old South Delhi Kalkaji Assembly Constituency Leader Atishi Marlin was elected in place of Kejriwal. Earlier there was talk in the media that Atishi will be the Chief Minister. Because, even though there were many senior MLAs in the party, it was seen that Kejriwal had too much faith in Atishi, the leader of the party. After the arrest of former Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the Delhi Abkari corruption case, Atishi replaced him and headed many other departments, including the important education department. When Chief Minister Kejriwal was arrested in the same corruption case and was in jail for more than five months, Atishi and one of the youth ministers, Saurabh Bhardwaj, were the key faces of the government and were leading the front of the ‘AAP’ government. On the occasion of Independence Day last August 15th, Atishi had the privilege of hoisting the national flag in place of the Chief Minister in the official program organized in Delhi. This was possible because the Chief Minister gave him a chance. Therefore, after Kejriwal announced last Sunday evening that he would resign from the post of Chief Minister within 48 hours, Atishi was the main face of the party for the post of Chief Minister. However, senior AAP leader Kailash Gehlot, minister Saurabh Bharadwaj and other names were in the news. Even the name of Kejriwal’s wife and former IRS (Indian Revenue Service) Sunita Kejriwal came to the premises of the speculations. However, since Sunita was not elected to the Delhi Assembly and if she was made the Chief Minister, the BJP was afraid of linking the AAP with the party of family members and campaigning, the name of Sunita was slowly removed from the possibility of the Chief Minister and Atishi became the Chief Minister. In today’s ‘AP’ MLA party meeting, Atishi’s name has been institutionally approved and Atishi is going to manage the Union Territory as Chief Minister.
As the five-year tenure of the Delhi government ends on February 23, 2025, the Election Commission has confirmed that the assembly elections will be held in the state before that. While announcing his resignation as chief minister, Kejriwal had called for Delhi assembly elections to be held in November. However, Kejriwal had recommended the resignation of the chief minister and the dissolution of the assembly. However, only the Chief Minister has changed in the state, as before, ‘AP’ is in power. Therefore, the BJP leaders have responded that it depends on the Election Commission when to hold the election before February 23, 2025. If there is no early election, Atishi’s term as Chief Minister will be only five months. It is futile to expect that much will change in Delhi politics in these five months. Because, Atishi will sit in the seat of the Chief Minister Sina, the Delhi government will be run by the ‘remote’ of the outgoing Chief Minister Kejriwal. There is no snake-rope relationship between the central government and the ‘Aam Aadmi Party’ government of the state. After the establishment of BJP rule at the Center in 2014, the BJP did not miss any opportunity to twist the ‘app’ government led by Kejriwal. The Lieutenant Governors or LGs appointed by the central government in Delhi have always tried to prop up Kejriwal and his government. The Supreme Court has consistently given assurance to the Kejriwal government, but the central government has usurped the power of the state government in various ways and asserted its dominance. A recent example is that the Supreme Court clarified through a judgment what should be the powers of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and the scope of the powers of the elected government of the state, but the central government enacted a law through the Parliament and handed over all the powers in the hands of the Lieutenant Governor. The culmination of the years-long tussle between the central and state governments is the CBI probe into the Delhi corruption scandal and the arrest and jailing of the state’s chief minister, deputy chief minister and senior leaders by the CBI and ED. Manish Sisodia, the state’s Deputy Chief Minister and Abkari Minister, was first jailed for corruption. After him, ‘AP’ Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and finally Chief Minister Arvind Kerjiwal. While the Aam Aadmi Party is complaining that the Delhi Abkari corruption case is only a conspiracy of the Central Government and the Aam Aadmi Party has been hatched through Delhi Deputy Governor Vinit Saxena, the BJP has been accusing Kejriwal’s government of being a ‘corrupt government’. It has been more than two years that the CBI, ED Delhi have been investigating the Abkari corruption case, but the trial of the case has been delayed due to the fact that they could not present concrete facts and evidence in the court. The Supreme Court has granted bail to the accused citing the violation of the constitutional right to liberty of the accused by keeping them in jail indefinitely pending investigation as it is uncertain when the trial will start and end. AAP leader Manish Sisodia, MP Sanjay Singh and outgoing Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are out on Supreme Court bail. Kejriwal resigned from the post of Chief Minister last Sunday, a day after his release from Tihar Jail announced. With his close associate Manish Sisodia also out on bail from the Supreme Court in the same case, the two will go to the Janata Durbar together and will be restored to power only if the people of Delhi vote for them and certify that they are not dishonest, after AAP chief Kejriwal announced on Sunday that Sisodia will replace him as Chief Minister. Hope was lost. Sisodia and Sanjay Singh are now busy with Kejriwal in Haryana elections. Voting for Haryana Assembly will be held on October 05. After it became clear that Atishi will be the Chief Minister of Delhi, he has come in front of the media and has appealed to the people of Delhi to re-elect Arvind Kejriwal as the Chief Minister in the elections to be held in February next year. Atishi expressed his gratitude to the ‘AP’ chief Arvind Kejriwal and the party (AAP) for giving him such importance as the post of chief minister. However, Atishi clarified in the media that ‘Arvind Kejriwal is the only Chief Minister of Delhi’. While Atishi seems happy with the new charge, he has not hesitated to express his loyalty to Kejriwal, so it is clear that the government will be run by Kejriwal and Atishi will remain only a rubber stamp. BJP and Congress leaders in Delhi said that this is a new drama of ‘app’. It is true that Kejriwal has got bail from the Supreme Court, but the conditions on which the court has granted bail have forced Kejriwal to step down as Chief Minister. Therefore, while the opposition is alleging that he has started a new drama in the hope of getting the sympathy of the people of Delhi, the leadership of the ‘AP’ is claiming that if there are immediate elections in Delhi, the ‘AP’ will surely come back to power. In such a situation, Atishi will have to run the government for five months. Even if the chief minister changes, there is no doubt that the tension between the center and the state will continue. So, everyone will be watching what happens next.
