India’s AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal resigns as Delhi Chief Minister

Eurasia News

NEW DELHI: Indian Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader and New Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal resigned on Friday after his anti-corruption Jan Lokpal Bill was not allowed to be tabled in the Delhi assembly amid strong protest from Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian media reported.

Kejriwal’s resignation came only 49 days after he assumed the office.

“We have not come here to save the government but the country. I will sacrifice the CM’s chair a thousand times if I have to for this task. We have to take this fight to Parliament. Perhaps it is our last session,” Kejriwal was quoted by India Today as saying in the assembly.

Later addressing party workers after submitting his resignation, Kejriwal said that “Today Jan Lokpal Bill was not allowed to be introduced, BJP & Congress united to oppose it.”

“Just because we had registered an FIR against Mukesh Ambani, both BJP and Congress joined hands against us,” he added.

Kejriwal’s party won 28 seats in Delhi’s 70 member assembly and came to power with the help of the Congress party, which governs at national level. But Congress decided not to back Kejriwal in Friday’s vote, claiming the measure was unconstitutional.