Delhi Education Minister Atishi is set to take over as the new chief minister of India's national capital territory, the ruling Aam Aadmi party announced on Tuesday, two days after incumbent Arvind Kejriwal said he was resigning.
Kejriwal, who is a critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, made his decision to step down known in a public address on Sunday after he was granted bail by the country’s supreme court on Friday.
He had been imprisoned for nearly six months over allegations of his party taking kickbacks in exchange for liquor licenses.
"We had called a meeting, in which it was decided unanimously that Atishi would be given the responsibility of chief minister till the next elections in Delhi," senior AAP leader and Minister Gopal Rai told the media.
Why did Kejriwal resign?
Kejriwal, who has been in power in Delhi for 10 years, is due to hand in his resignation to Delhi’s lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena at 4:30 pm on Tuesday, Rai said.
Kejriwal said that he would not return to the post of the chief minister till his party is re-elected in an upcoming state election.
"I will go to every street, I will go to every house and until the public gives its verdict that Kejriwal is honest, I will not sit on the CM’s chair," he said on Sunday while speaking to party workers at AAP headquarters.
Kejriwal also urged the country's Election Commission to hold an early election, calling for the vote to be held in November instead of February 2025.
The opposition leader and his party have denied the graft allegations and claim the arrests of AAP leaders as "politically motivated" by Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
"They wanted to break me by jailing me," he said after his release from prison on Friday.
Kejriwal’s arrest in March had come just a month before India held its national elections.
He had earlier been granted bail for several weeks to campaign for the polls. He returned to police custody after voting ended.