Askume, Sept 15 – Indian opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday he will resign as chief minister of the Delhi regional government, two days after he was released on bail in a corruption case.
Kejriwal was granted bail by the Supreme Court of India on Friday and released from jail the same night, nearly six months after he was detained for allegedly violating the capital’s liquor policy.
Kejriwal is a staunch critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a veteran leader of the anti-corruption movement. His Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has rapidly risen in mainstream politics, although its influence is less than that of the established opposition parties.
The AAP had hoped that Kejriwal’s release from jail would give him a chance to run for the chief minister’s post in regional elections in Haryana next month and Delhi early next year.
Announcing his resignation from the post of Chief Minister during a meeting with AAP workers, Kejriwal said that he will return to the post of Chief Minister only when people prove their sincerity by voting for him in the upcoming Delhi elections. He requested the Election Commission to postpone the Delhi elections from February 2025 to November.
Kejriwal said, “I demand that elections be held in November along with Maharashtra elections, I demand that elections be held immediately.”
He was first detained by India’s anti-financial crimes agency in March, just weeks before India’s national elections, over Delhi’s liquor policy.
Although he was granted bail in that case in July, he remained in custody last month after being arrested by federal police in a separate corruption case related to the same policy.
Kejriwal, 55, and the AAP have denied the allegations and said the cases are “politically motivated”.
(Paragraph 1 of this story has been corrected to give publication date Friday instead of Saturday)
