Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to resign in two days, wants early election

New Delhi: Less than 48 hours after being released from jail on bail, Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday that he will resign as Delhi Chief Minister within the next two days and demanded the Union Territory's Assembly polls be preponed to November.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor, who has been prohibited from going to the Chief Minister’s office or the Delhi Secretariat by the Supreme Court as part of bail conditions imposed, appealed to the electors to vote for him in large numbers in the next Assembly polls if they thought he was honest.

"We will go to the court of people to prove our innocence.// Some people say that we will not be able to work because of restrictions imposed by the Supreme Court. Even they did not leave any stone unturned in imposing restrictions on us," Kejriwal said during an address to the AAP workers at the party headquarters here.

Kejriwal, who walked out from Tihar jail on Friday evening after the top court granted him bail in a corruption case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, said he would return as Chief Minister only on being re-elected to power.

Appealing to the Delhi electors, he said: "If you think I am honest, vote for me in large numbers. I will sit on the CM's chair only after being elected".

He demanded that the Delhi Assembly polls, likely to be held in February next year, be advanced to November and announced that in the next two to three days his party MLAs would elect someone else as the chief minister till the next election took place.

"The elections are supposed to be held in February. I demand elections be held in November with Maharashtra elections... Till elections are held, someone else from the party will be the chief minister. In the next 2-3 days, a meeting of the MLAs will be held, where the next CM will be elected,” he added.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested the AAP supremo in a money laundering case related to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy on March 10. After he spent 50 days in jail, the apex court gave him interim bail till June 1 to campaign in the Lok Sabha election. On June 2, Kejriwal returned to jail.

On June 26, when Kejriwal was in judicial custody, the CBI arrested him in the graft case linked to the excise policy, Though he was granted bail on July 12 by the Supreme Court in the money laundering case registered by the ED, he had to remain in jail till September 13 when he secured bail from the highest court of the country in the CBI case.