 "Kejriwal & Co quit, to serve the people")
Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung will rule Delhi for the forseeable future, and elections to the Delhi assembly could be clubbed with the general elections. Kejriwal vowed to fight for the rights of the common people till the very end. The resignation will free Kejriwal and his party members from the responsibility of running the government. They will now be able to campaign all over the country - exactly what the Congress had hoped to avoid by helping AAP form the government. A senior AAP leader said Kejriwal could be the party's prime ministerial candidate.
At the AAP headquarters, around 200 party workers gathered to listen to Kejriwal and shouted anti-Narendra Modi slogans. The volunteers cheered as their leader announced the fall of the Delhi government. "They say we need the permission of the central government before making this law. They are acting like the colonial British and the Lt Governor is acting like their viceroy," Kejriwal said while announcing his Cabinet's resignation.
| Major moves by the Kejriwal govt |
| Lower water, electricity rates CAG audit of discoms ‘Janta durbars’ to address people’s problems No FDI in retail Easier traffic rules for auto-rickshaw drivers Exemption for people who had wilfully not paid power bills FIR in CWG streetlights case SIT to probe ‘84 riots cases FIR against RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani, Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily and others, alleging overpricing of KG-D6 gas |
Kejriwal resigned after the Delhi Assembly defeated a motion to pass the Jan Lok Pal Bill that needed to be routed through the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and the Union home ministry, Delhi being a centrally administered state. This is mandated by Section 55 of the Transaction of Business Rules of the Delhi Assembly.
Kejriwal and his colleagues had objected to this route, saying the Constitution was silent on the central government having any jurisdiction on the activities of the state government or the Assembly.
"I believe in the Constitution of India. I took oath of office to uphold the Constitution, not to uphold the orders of the central government," Kejriwal said at the end of a day of drama, emotion and passion.
The drama unfolded when both the BJP and Congress demanded the House Speaker M S Dhir read out a letter that the Lieutenant Governor had written to him a day earlier.
Dhir said the letter would be presented on the floor of the House "as per convenience". This led to a huge uproar as ministers entered the well of the House. It was only after Sahib Singh Chauhan of the BJP read out from the rulebook that it was mandatory to present the message of the Lieutenant Governor to the House before any other business that Dhir agreed to do so after having suspended the House for 20 minutes.
The letter stated, "As per Section 22(3) of the Government of NCT of Delhi Act 1991 the said Bill, being a "Financial Bill", is to be sent to the Lt Governor for recommendation, and as per Rule 55(1) of Transaction of Business of Govt. of National Capital Territory Rules 1993, the Lt Governor is required to make a prior reference to the Central Government before being introduced in the Legislative Assembly... I hereby send the message to the Legislative Assembly, not to consider the Bill unless it is introduced with the recommendations of the Lt Governor."
After the letter was read out by Dhir, both the BJP and Congress unanimously demanded a vote on the letter. Kejriwal demanded a discussion on the letter, which was again opposed by the parties.
The House was again adjourned for 20 minutes. BJP leader Harsh Vardhan requested the Speaker to "protect the rights of the Constitution" and ask for voting in the House. After the parties questioned his lack of knowledge as a speaker, Dhir was forced to go for voting and asked the House whether the Bill should be introduced. Then 42 members opposed it while 27 were in favour, after which the Bill was not introduced.
The BJP and Congress said they had no differences with the Bill per se, but only with the manner in which Kejriwal and his colleagues were forcing the agenda and projecting themselves as the sole crusaders against corruption.
Kejriwal kept alleging that the BJP and Congress had joined ranks after his government filed an FIR against industrialist Mukesh Ambani over gas pricing. He charged that both parties were taking the stand they were because they had been influenced by Ambani. This was hotly denied by both parties, which said while they had no differences with the Jan Lokpal Bill, they could not be party to other illegalities committed by the AAP government. They wanted the Delhi Assembly to discuss those first, including the conduct of Law Minister Somnath Bharti whose orders the Delhi Police had refused to carry out as they were 'illegal'. The Congress took special pains to point out that its support to the AAP government continued and had not been withdrawn: in fact, the Congress had helped the government to pass several financial Bills.
After the last meeting of the Cabinet, Kejriwal went to the headquarters of the AAP and announced he was resigning and that established political parties were paid servants of business houses. Amid cheering supporters, he drove to the Lieutenant Governor's residence to hand over his resignation.