Will Sunita Kejriwal be the next Chief Minister of Delhi till the next elections? The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is now raising this question strongly, doubting why Kejriwal has sought two days before putting in his papers.
“Kejriwal has sought 48 hours to try find a replacement, or trying to do some placement,” BJP’s Sudhanshu Trivedi asked after the dramatic announcement made by Kejriwal.
BJP’s Shehzaad Poonawalla posed the same question to ask if Kejriwal would choose his wife as the next CM on the concept of “all power and no responsibility” for himself, and whether he was hence making a virtue out of a necessity and resigning as the CM.
There has been intense speculation over Sunita Kejriwal’s role in the past few months. As Kejriwal was sent to jail, his wife has been holding public rallies and leading the party’s campaign in Haryana so far. Kejriwal had chosen to stay on as the CM while he was in jail.
Now, he has said that Manish Sisodia and he would not sit on their chairs (CM and Deputy CM), respectively, till chosen again by people, ruling out Sisodia’s chances of replacing him.
There are only five ministers in the Delhi Cabinet, with Gopal Rai being the senior-most, followed by Imran Hussain, Kailash Gehlot, Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi. The most important portfolios are with Kailash Gehlot, including Home, Law, Finance and Planning.
BJP calls it drama for sympathy
The BJP, meanwhile, feels Kejriwal’s resignation is all a drama to get public sympathy as he has no courage left to face voters after being embroiled in big corruption scams. A top BJP source said Kejriwal in fact should have resigned much earlier on moral grounds and seems to have done some introspection while he was in jail.
The source said it is up to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to decide the dates for the elections in Delhi, and the party was in strong position in Delhi whenever elections are held. “The public has already given its verdict three months ago when AAP-Congress alliance lost all seven seats in Delhi,” Trivedi said.
Jharkhand Example?
There is a lesson here for AAP from the Jharkhand example where Hemant Soren had resigned as the CM before going to jail and placed his trusted lieutenant and veteran Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Champai Soren as the CM, instead of any family member.
However, when Hemant Soren came out on bail and became the CM again, Champai Soren said he was left humiliated and chose to quit the party. Champai Soren has now joined the BJP ahead of the Jharkhand elections, which could hurt the chances of the JMM.
The AAP is, however, clear that Kejriwal will be the CM if the party wins the upcoming Delhi elections and the period till February will only be a stop-gap arrangement. Kejriwal has asked for elections in Delhi to be advanced to November and be held along with polls in Maharashtra.
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