AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal will resign as Delhi CM, prompting a search for his successor ahead of upcoming assembly polls. Key contenders are being discussed.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) held a key meeting on Monday to decide on a new Delhi chief minister, with its national convener Arvind Kejriwal set to officially resign from the post, churning the Capital’s political landscape ahead of the assembly polls early next year.
AAP’s 12-member Political Affairs Committee (PAC), the party’s highest decision-making body, met at Kejriwal’s residence in the evening to deliberate on his successor, a day after the 56-year-old announced his resignation from the post.
“He [Kejriwal] held one-on-one discussions with each leader and sought feedback on his replacement. Since he met everyone separately, no one knows about the discussions held with other leaders,” Delhi minister Saurabh Bhardwaj said after the 90-minute meeting.
He added that a meeting of the AAP’s legislative party is set to take place on Tuesday at 11:30am. The legislative party consists of elected lawmakers, and their leader is appointed as the CM. The AAP currently has 60 MLAs in the 70-member assembly.
“Tomorrow [Tuesday], the legislative party meeting of AAP will be held, and the CM will take this discussion into the second phase,” the Greater Kailash legislator said.
Kejriwal is set to meet Lt Governor VK Saxena at 4.30 pm on Tuesday and tender his resignation, people aware of the matter said.
“Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will resign on Tuesday… and the entire process (of putting his successor in office) will be completed within a week,” Bhardwaj said.
Rajya Sabha MP and the party’s general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak hinted that the party might soon announce the next CM. “The next chief minister of Delhi will be decided within the next 1-2 days. A legislative party meeting will select one,” he said.
Although the AAP remained tight-lipped on the identity of the replacement, people aware of the matter said Delhi ministers Atishi, Bharadwaj, Gopal Rai and Kailash Gahlot were among the contenders for the post, with speculation also rife that Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal might be selected to head the government. Two other names doing the rounds were the party’s Dalit faces — Rakhi Birla and Kuldeep Kumar.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, two AAP leaders said the next CM will likely be from among the cabinet ministers. Other than the CM, the Delhi cabinet currently has five ministers – Bharadwaj, Atishi, Rai, Gahlot and Imran Hussain.
A third leader, however, did not rule out the possibility of a surprise pick. “There is speculation that a Dalit leader might be named as the next CM,” this person said, requesting anonymity.
On Monday morning, hours before the PAC meet, Kejriwal met with Sisodia and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha m discussing, among other issues, the new CM , party officials indicated.
“The next CM will be a sitting MLA and not an MP or an office-bearer,” one of the officials said, asking not to be named.
Addressing party workers on Sunday, Kejriwal said he would resign from the post in two days and return only if he won the people’s mandate in the high-stakes Delhi assembly polls. He made the announcement two days after he was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the excise policy case. He also ruled out former deputy CM Manish Sisodia taking over the post. Sisodia is also an accused in the excise policy case and was granted bail by the SC on August 9, after 17 months of incarceration.
This is not the first time Kejriwal has quit the post. In 2014, he resigned after just 49 days in office in a coalition government with the Congress, only to come back with a stunning victory in which his party swept 67 of the 70 assembly seats in the 2015 assembly polls.
A former Delhi assembly official said that, according to rules, the CM has to submit their resignation to the LG, who forwards it to the President. A notification is issued after the resignation is accepted. After this, whoever is elected as the leader of the legislative party is appointed as the CM, the official added.
“In the legislative party meeting, the name of the new chief minister (either MLA or non MLA) is proposed by MLAs. The MLAs unanimously or with majority decide to name a CM-elect. The CM-elect has to submit a letter signed by the MLAs to LG, staking claim to form the new government,” the official said.