Is Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s announcement that he will resign in 48 hours, a masterstroke? This is a legitimate question that must be nagging residents of Delhi and outside. The fact is that this is a desperate act of damage control and an attempt to salvage the party’s prestige, at a time when the Delhi assembly elections are around the corner.
Kejriwal has been the chief minister of Delhi since 2013 (with a brief interlude) when for the first time AAP formed a government with the support of the Congress and later surprised everyone by winning 67 out of 70 seats in 2015. There was a replay in 2020 when the party won 62 seats. But in 2024 AAP will be contesting in an entirely different political matrix. AAP is facing a decade of anti-incumbency, marred by serious corruption charges against the senior leaders of the party, including Kejriwal. Also, AAP’s popularity is at its lowest ebb since its inception in 2012. This entire exercise is an attempt to win back the people’s confidence.
I think Kejriwal committed the biggest blunder of his life by not resigning before going to jail. It was a brazen violation of constitutional modality as no chief minister can run the government from jail. It’s true that constitutionally it is not incumbent on a Chief Minister or a minister that they should resign when they are sent to jail. But this undermines the basic ethos of the constitution. Now when he is out on bail, if he says that he will resign, then it defies constitutional logic. It is apparent that it is a political ploy and he wants to prove that he is still ‘Mr Clean’ and that is why he has offered himself to be tried in the people’s court.
Secondly, if he wants early elections in November, along with those in Maharashtra, he should not anoint another AAP leader to run the government. If he is really serious about an early election then he should have also recommended dissolution of the assembly and forced the central government and the Election Commission to hold elections in Maharashtra. But he is not doing that.
Thirdly, if his act is driven by morality then like L K Advani, who when accused in the Hawala case had said that he would not contest elections till he was given a clean chit by the court, Kejriwal too should have said that unless he is given a clean chit by the court he won’t hold any constitutional post. He has not said that. Winning or losing elections does not absolve any accused of any crime. It is the court that is empowered to give clean chit. This shows Kejriwal is trying to wriggle out of the crisis in which he and his party are in. But the big question is, can he emerge unscathed?
