New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Sunday said he would resign after two days and would demand early polls in Delhi while vowing not to sit in CM’s chair till people give him a “certificate of honesty”.
Kejriwal, who was released on bail from Tihar Friday in the excise policy graft case, said he would hold a meeting of AAP MLAs in the next couple of days and a party leader would take over as Chief Minister.
“Delhi elections are due in February but I demand that elections in the national capital be held in November with Maharashtra,” he said.
“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.” The AAP national convener said, “I will become Chief Minister and Manish Sisodia deputy CM only when people say we are honest.
Alleging the BJP tried to prove him corrupt, Kejriwal said the saffron party cannot provide good schools and free electricity to people because they are corrupt. “We are honest,” he asserted.
“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,” the Delhi Chief Minister said.
“I didn’t resign (after arrest in excise policy case) because I respect democracy and the Constitution is supreme for me,” Kejriwal said and asserted that it is only the AAP that can stand up to the BJP’s “conspiracies”.
Referring to him quitting the Chief Minister’s post in 2014 over the Jan Lokpal Bill, just 49 days after assuming power, Kejriwal said, “I resigned then for my ideals. I do not have a lust for power.”
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.
He asked people to vote in his favour only if they considered him honest. “For me, the BJP is not important, people are important,” he said.
“Our leaders Satyendar Jain and Amanatullah Khan are still in jail. I hope they come out soon,” the Chief Minister told AAP workers here as he thanked God “who was with us through difficulties.”
About his time in jail, Kejriwal referred to letters written by freedom fighter Bhagat Singh while in British captivity and said, “I wrote only one letter to the Lieutenant Governor from Tihar and was issued a warning.”
“Our freedom fighters were allowed meetings with colleagues but my party colleague Sandeep Pathak was not allowed to meet me in jail,” he said.
PTI