Delhi election gamechanger Arvind Kejriwal resigns as CM
Arvind Kejriwal, the Indian anti-corruption campaigner and self-styled revolutionary, who challenged established political parties and unexpectedly won control of New Delhi in an election last December, has resigned as chief minister after less than two months in office.
Mr Kejriwal’s resignation brings an end to the first taste of power for the upstart Aam Aadmi (Common Man) party, which he founded a year ago. But the AAP remains popular in the capital and in some other Indian cities, and may win seats in the general election to be held within three months.
Mr Kejriwal blamed the Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata party, India’s two main national political groups, for the deadlock and suggested they were avenging his formal corruption complaints against Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire head of Reliance Industries, and Congress’s Sheila Dikshit, his predecessor as chief minister.
“They tell us we don’t know how to govern,” he said shortly before resigning. “Listen, acting against the corrupt is true governance.”
He added: “We did a lot for Delhi by cutting electricity and water tariffs. My ministers tried to do a lot by spending many sleepless nights . . . Maybe we made mistakes. We are human, but we tried our best.”
His opponents, as well as some disillusioned early supporters of the AAP, accused him of behaving like a protester rather than an office-holder. They said the party was ill-prepared for government and had failed to explain how it was going to finance the generous price cuts for power and water that it offered to consumers.
“He has miserably failed to deliver in 49 days,” Harsh Vardhan of the BJP told CNN-IBN television news. “Arvind Kejriwal had no alternative except this.”
The AAP won 28 of the 70 seats in the Delhi assembly, less than the BJP’s 31, but formed the new government under Mr Kejriwal with temporary support from Congress. Both BJP and Congress were happy to have the new party expose itself to the realities of government and lose some of its lustre.
The Delhi assembly is expected to be dissolved and new elections called, which may coincide with the general election due by May.
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