Arvind Kejriwal apologises for resigning as Delhi CM, wants fresh elections
New Delhi: AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday apologised for abruptly resigning as Delhi Chief Minister. He said that the decision was his biggest mistake ever.
Moves seem to be afoot within the AAP to get rid of its leader Arvind Kejriwal and replace him with an “acceptable” face, with Manish Sisodia emerging as a strong contender. It is learnt that Shazia Ilmi and Kumar Vishwas are also upset with Mr Kejriwal’s style of functioning. There are reports that many AAP leaders may quit and move to the BJP.
Many in the AAP now fear that if fresh Assembly elections are held in Delhi, the party many not even be able to reach a double-digit figure.
The newbie party, which bagged 28 of the 70 Assembly segments in December last, lost a majority of these segments which fall under the purview of the seven Lok Sabha seats to the BJP.
Mr Kejriwal and his six former ministers could not even score in any of their respective assembly segments in the Parliamentary polls.
It is learnt that there was a division of opinion in the AAP’s political affairs committee whether it should accept the Congress support to stake claim for forming the government in Delhi.
At a PAC meeting on Monday, a section of the party leaders outrightly rejected the idea of the party seeking support of the Congress to form the government. “Others pointed out that if fresh elections were held, there were chances of the party losing some Assembly segments. Some even advocated the idea of having a referendum on this matter,” an AAP leader said.
What is worrying the party leadership is that a section of its MLAs may join the BJP. “Fearing they may lose their seats in the fresh elections, and to ensure their membership is not cancelled due to strong anti-defection laws, one-third of the legislators could form another front to support the BJP,” another AAP leader said.
A source said that a section of the AAP leadership had even sent feelers to the Congress that in case Mr Kejriwal was not acceptable to them, they could even have Mr Sisodia as their CM candidate.
The Congress, however, ruled out any possibility of the party extending any support to the AAP. At a press conference on Tuesday, Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, party’s leader of the House Haroon Yusuf and its chief spokesperson Mukesh Sharma said that come what may they would not extend any support to the AAP. “We gave them a chance and they betrayed one and all,” Mr Lovely said.
Mr Kejriwal along with Mr Sisodia met Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung on Tuesday. Though there were speculations that the two talked about possible moves of forming the government, the AAP said this was just a courtesy call.
Many ppl are annoyed with us for resigning,they wanted us to continue. I apologize to the whole nation for this mistake-Kejriwal
— ANI (@ANI_news) May 21, 2014Chances of forming Govt are negligible, so we want fresh elections. We are gearing up for it-Kejriwal pic.twitter.com/ycpVR6mgPP
— ANI (@ANI_news) May 21, 2014