New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party boss Arvind Kejriwal quit as Delhi Chief Minister in favour of colleague Atishi on Tuesday evening, four days after he was released in the liquor policy case.
Kejriwal met Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena at his residence to hand in his papers. Shortly afterwards Atishi told reporters “the people of Delhi are resolved to make Arvind Kejriwal the Chief Minister again” and that “this is an emotional moment for the party and the people”.
One person who seems to have taken the development with a pinch of salt belongs to the party itself. AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal referred to Atishi as “Afzal Guru-lover” and said that the AAP leader will have to answer on her relations with the terrorist. Reacting to Atishi holding the CM post, Swati Maliwal called it an “unfortunate day” for Delhi. She alleged that Atishi’s family fought a long battle to save terrorist Afzal Guru from the death penalty. Maliwal further claimed that Atishi will only be a “dummy CM”.
“This is an extremely unfortunate day for Delhi. A woman like Atishi is going to become the CM of Delhi, whose own family fought a long battle to save terrorist Afzal Guru from death penalty. Her parents wrote mercy petitions to the President several times, that he is innocent, that he should not be hanged, that he is a victim of political conspiracy. How wrong is this? Today, Atishi will become the CM but we all know that she will be only a “dummy CM”. Still, this is a major issue because she will be the CM and this matter is directly linked to the security of the country as well as Delhi. God save the people of Delhi from such a CM,” Maliwal said.
Maliwal has been asked to resign by the party following her remarks on Atishi.
Senior AAP leader and MLA Dilip Pandey accused Swati Maliwal of “reading out the BJP’s script despite being sent to the Parliament by the AAP”.
“Swati Maliwal takes the Rajya Sabha ticket from AAP but takes the script to react from BJP. If she has even a little shame, she should resign as a Rajya Sabha MP and choose the path to Rajya Sabha on a BJP ticket. If she wants to be in Rajya Sabha, she should get a ticket from BJP,” the AAP leader said.
BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said that Atishi supports those who try to insult India and both her parents had written mercy petition for Afzal Guru, who was hanged in Delhi’s Tihar jail on February 9, 2013, for plotting the December 2001 attack on Parliament.
