oppn parties Kejriwal To Resign, Seek Early Elections In Delhi

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  • PM Modi says Congress is bent on dividing Hindu society for electoral gains and is trying to bulid a Muslim vote bank by keeping the minority in fear
  • Election Commission says Congress demands on Haryana are 'unprecedented' and it is rejecting the will of the people
  • INDIA bloc allies slam Congress, say it does not know how to win even sure-shot elections after its loss in Haryana. AAP dumps it in Delhi and will go solo in the nsuing elections
  • Rahul Gandhi says Haryana loss was 'unexpected' and the party is analysing the results
  • PWD takes over the 6, Flagstaff Road bungalow in Delhi and removes Delhi CM Atishi's belongings for trespassing. It argued that the house was not Delhi CMs permanent residence and once Kejriwal vacated it, a fresh application for allotting it to Atishi needed to be made
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  • 2nd T20 versus Bangladesh: Nitish Reddy and Rinku Singh shine with the bat as India thrashes the visitors by 86 runs to win the match and seal the series 2-0 with one match to go
  • Women's T20 World Cup: India thrash Sri Lanka by 82 runs, improve their net run rate considerably to jump to the second position on the group table and give themselves a realistic chance of making the semis
  • EC slams Congress for raising doubts about Haryana results
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Kejriwal To Resign, Seek Early Elections In Delhi

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2024-09-15 16:10:36

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

Arvind Kejriwal has announced that he will resign as chief minister of Delhi in a couple of days. He said that he, along with deputy CM Manish Sisodia, will re-assume their office only when they are cleared by the people of Delhi as ‘honest’ politicians. This has given rise to the speculation that Kejriwal will press for early elections in Delhi. Elections are due in Delhi in, or before, February 2025. With this move, Kejriwal most probably wants elections to be held just after the festive season, three months ahead of schedule. He might have been forced to take this course of action due to the fact that the Supreme Court, while granting him bail, had clearly stated that he was not allowed to enter the office of the Delhi chief minister and sign any files in his official capacity. That, in effect, made him a chief minister just in name. The BJP has called his move a "PR stunt" and "confession of crime". The Congress also called the move a "gimmick".

While Kejriwal won a great victory by securing bail in Supreme Court and getting the one of the judges on the bench to say that his arrest was 'unjustified', he seems to have no option left after strict restrictions were placed by the court on his functioning as the chief minister. Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, in a concurring but separate judgment granting bail to Kejriwal, held that his arrest by the CBI was just to keep him in jail after he secured bail in another case that the ED had filed against him. The other judge on the bench, Justice Surya Kant, however held that the arrest was legal. But both judges ruled that Kejriwal could not enter the office of the Delhi chief minister and cannot sign any files or orders in his official capacity.

Kejriwal is not used to such restrictions. Hence, he wants to seek revalidation from the people of Delhi. But he must be aware that elections and electoral victories are one thing and court cases are another. It is not clear whether if he wins and returns as chief minister, the restrictions placed by the court will cease to operate. Hence, in that case, even if he wins, he will still not be able to function as chief minister until and unless he is finally cleared in the liquor excise case by the apex court.