The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday (September 15, 2024) said the announcement by Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal that he would resign as the Chief Minister of Delhi was nothing but a “confession of his crime” and that he had been forced to do so as the Supreme Court, by granting him “conditional bail” in the Delhi excise policy case, restricted his powers as Chief Minister.
The Congress called the resignation a “political drama” and said Mr. Kejriwal should have resigned six months ago as he had lost the moral right to hold the post. The Congress and the AAP had a tie-up in the Lok Sabha election but since then the Congress has been attacking the AAP over issues pertaining to Delhi.
Addressing a press conference, BJP national spokesperson and MP Sudhanshu Trivedi termed the resignation as a “drama” and said, “He is still the Chief Minister. If he wanted to, he could have called for a Cabinet meeting to recommend dissolution of the Assembly. Why is he demanding early polls and playing the emotional card.”
Reacting to Mr. Kejriwal’s statement that he was leaving his fate in the hands of the people, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said the people had already given their verdict long ago when they did not respond to the “Jail ka Jawab Vote Se” campaign of the AAP during the Lok Sabha election.
“The people of Delhi doubt that Kejriwal will resign, and his past actions and changes in statements cast doubt on his announcement,” Mr. Sachdeva said.
He said the people of Delhi were asking Mr. Kejriwal for an account of the ‘Sheesh Mahal’ (Chief Minister’s residence) that he built with public money. “If Kejriwal is so honest, he should open the ‘Sheesh Mahal’ to the public and media and show where all the funds came from,” Mr. Sachdeva said.
“Given the deep-rooted corruption in the Kejriwal government, the entire Cabinet should resign because there is no department untouched by corruption,” he added.
The Delhi BJP chief said party workers would go door to door to expose the corruption of the Kejriwal government and liberate Delhi from the corrupt misrule. “Kejriwal’s offer of resignation is an acknowledgment of the beginning of disintegration within the Aam Aadmi Party,” Mr. Sachdeva said.
Appoint new CM soon: Congress
In a statement, Delhi Congress chief said, “If Mr. Kejriwal had resigned six months ago, the people of Delhi would have been saved a lot of agony.”
He added that the resignation looked like a “political drama” as the Supreme Court had imposed several restrictions on him.
“A new Chief Minister should be appointed as soon as possible. The public of Delhi is aware and they will surely give an answer to the Aam Aadmi Party’s misgovernance in the Delhi Assembly election,” Mr. Yadav said.
The Delhi Congress chief said that in the past two months nearly 40 people had lost their lives due to rain-related mishaps and the people of Delhi had gone through suffering due to water shortage at first and then water-logging and accumulation of garbage.
“When Mr. Kejriwal could promptly sack Manish Sisodia as Deputy Chief Minister following his arrest in connection with the liquor scam, and Satyender Jain as Minister when he was jailed, he should have resigned too when he was put behind bars, but clung to the CM post so that his family could live in the palatial official residence,” Mr. Yadav said.
He questioned whether Mr. Kejriwal would move out of his official residence after resigning as Chief Minister, and allow the new Chief Minister to move into the official residence, or make a family member the Chief Minister so that he could continue to enjoy the luxury of the official residence.
Published - September 15, 2024 11:22 pm IST
