New Delhi: Why after 48 hours? asked the BJP after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced his shock resignation from the top post at a party meeting on Sunday afternoon.
“In the past too, he has done this. People of Delhi are asking, he can’t go to the secretariat, can’t sign documents? What is the point then? He should resign today,” said BJP’s Harish Khurana.
He added that the saffron party was ready for elections and will return to power in Delhi after 25 years.
Speaking at a presser, BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi said that this 48-hour time which he (Arvind Kejriwal) has sought is enshrined in mystery. “You have joined the club of Chief Ministers jailed for corruption but set a new record by maintaining power from jail, showcasing a new level of political opportunism. The Delhi Chief Minister defied his own government’s ban on fireworks as his supporters burst crackers to celebrate his release from Tihar jail. Why are you (Arvind Kejriwal) talking about resigning after coming out and that too after 48 hours? The people of the country and Delhi want to know what is the secret of 48 hours, what all is to be settled in 48 hours?…” he asked.
BJP leader Sushil Singh called the Delhi CM as the greater dramatist in this country.
“Arvind Kejriwal is a master of political maneuvering. He knows that he should have resigned in those 5 months when he was in jail…He is deliberately talking about resignation as this is the only way to get sympathy…He should have resigned a long time ago. I think the people of Delhi have completely understood his reality…,” said BJP leader Shazia Ilmi.
On the other hand, Delhi Congress has welcomed Mr Kejriwal’s resignation, saying it was better late than never. “It would have been better if he had resigned when Delhi was facing floods and drinking water shortage. I hope Delhi soon gets a new chief minister who can go to his office and sign files. The AAP government should be dissolved and elections should be conducted in November. The public of Delhi will give its answer…The entire party is accused in the Delhi Excise policy…The public of Delhi knows that you (Arvind Kejriwal) looted them..,” said Delhi Congress unit president Devendra Yadav.
Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit on Sunday said that the AAP supremo should have quit a long time back. “There is no question of him becoming the CM again. We have been saying this for a long time that he should resign as the CM. This happened for the first time when an elected leader came out of jail on bail, and was asked by the Supreme Court to not go to the CMO or sign any papers. Such conditions were never imposed on any other chief minister,” Dikshit told news agency ANI, while terming his resignation as a “mere gimmick”.
Explaining “secret” behind 48 hours, Atishi said, “Today is Sunday, tomorrow is a holiday for Eid-e-Milad, so the next working day is Tuesday. That’s why two days time.”
The big announcement
During his address to the party workers at the AAP headquarters, Kejriwal said that he will resign as Delhi Chief Minister in two days after the party selects a new person from the party as CM. He said that he would demand an early poll in Delhi and vowed not to sit in CM’s chair till people give him a “certificate of honesty”.
He demanded that the elections in the national capital, scheduled for February, be held in November along with the polls in Maharashtra.
What AAP leaders have to say
From the past two years, BJP has been levelling allegations against all the leaders of AAP that they are dishonest, corrupt…Even after two years, ED and CBI don’t dare to start a trial against Arvind Kejriwal…Supreme Court has given bail to Arvind Kejriwal but he wants to go among the public to give agni-pariksha and will sit on the Chief Minister’s chair only after giving the agni-pariksha…He(Arvind Kejriwal) is the only Chief Minister who after resigning from his post is saying only vote for me if I am honest otherwise don’t vote for me.
—-Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj
For the last two years, BJP has left no stone unturned to harass AAP. Thousands of raids were conducted but they could not present any proof of corruption…BJP is afraid of elections. BJP knows that the people of Delhi are angry about the way false allegations were made against Arvind Kejriwal. That is why the BJP does not want elections because they know that the people of Delhi will express this anger in their votes. If elections are held today, the people of Delhi will not give a single seat to the BJP. 70 out of 70 seats will go to the Aam Aadmi Party.
—-Delhi Minister Atishi
Mukhyamantri ji agni-pariksha se guzarne ke liye taiyyar hai. Now it’s in the hands of the people of Delhi to decide if he is honest or not. Arvind Kejriwal had asked for votes in the name of work in 2020 and said that if I have worked then vote for me, if I have not worked then do not vote for me. The people of Delhi will declare the Chief Minister honest by voting for AAP and in the upcoming 2025 Delhi elections, the people of Delhi will declare their Chief Minister honest through that election.
—-AAP MP Raghav Chadha
Arvind Kejriwal was arrested with the aim of ending the AAP and to do horse-trading here but they (BJP) failed. Now Arvind Kejriwal is leaving, we will get a certificate from the public. The people of Delhi will decide whether he is honest or guilty. I am sure that Arvind Kejriwal will bring a certificate from the public with a huge majority. Arvind Kejriwal served the people of Delhi honestly…Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections are held in Delhi in different ways. Earlier also BJP has won the Lok Sabha elections and has been badly defeated in the assembly elections.
—-AAP MP Sanjay Singh
Arvind Kejriwal resigned from his first government in just 49 days, owing to his principles… His only aim is to work for the country. Today the kind of accusations being levelled on him by the BJP can’t be tolerated by any self-respecting person… Ever since Arvind Kejriwal formed government in Delhi, he has had no power. At every step, he has been stopped from performing his duties… The court has buried Arvind Kejriwal… It was the people who put their trust in Arvind Kejriwal and elected him as their CM. So now it will be the people who will decide if he should continue to be the CM of Delhi… He did not resign from prison because he wanted to set a trend that if you are being dominated by a dictator, you have to stand up to your morals, democratic values and the constitution.
—-AAP MP Sandeep Pathak
