Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who came out of jail on bail in the alleged liquor scam, has announced his resignation. He has said that he will leave his post after two days. Along with this, Kejriwal has also announced that he will not sit on the CM’s chair until the people of Delhi give him a ‘certificate of honesty’. Kejriwal is hinting at the mandate in the Delhi Assembly elections. By doing this, he has again played his card of ‘jail ka jawaab vote’.
A gamble that failed a few months ago
Just as Arvind Kejriwal has asked for a certificate of honesty from the people of Delhi, he had asked for a ‘jawaab to jail’ through vote during the Lok Sabha elections. After his arrest on 21st March, Aam Aadmi Party had started this campaign with his picture behind bars. Kejriwal himself, after getting 21 days bail from the Supreme Court, focused on this campaign. He told the people in his every rally and road show that the BJP government has put him in jail under wrong methods and false charges and hence the people should answer this by voting in his favour.
Before surrendering on June 2, Kejriwal also said that if the people of Delhi want him out of jail, they should vote in favour of Aam Aadmi Party. He went further and said that if the people of Delhi make him win all the seven seats, he will come out of jail the very next day after the results are declared on June 4. Kejriwal bluntly told the people that if they want him out of jail, they should vote for Aam Aadmi Party. However, when the results came out on June 4, Aam Aadmi Party got a big shock. The party had to face defeat on all the seven seats in Delhi. BJP asked him to resign saying that the people of Delhi have ordered him to stay in jail.
Then why play the same bet?
Kejriwal has once again played the old trick and asked the people of Delhi to decide. Kejriwal has said that if the public feels that Kejriwal is honest, then vote in his favour and if they feel that he is guilty, then do not vote. Experts believe that Kejriwal has done this in view of the results of the last three assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections. In fact, since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the people of Delhi have voted in a special trend. Aam Aadmi Party has got bumper support in the assembly elections and lotus has bloomed on all seven seats in the Lok Sabha elections. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Aam Aadmi Party lost all seven seats, but in the 2015 assembly elections, it achieved a record victory. In 2019, once again the people of Delhi made BJP win all seven MPs, and in the assembly elections the very next year, they gave 68 seats to Aam Aadmi Party. Kejriwal’s party believes that even though BJP captured all seven seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, according to the old trend, it can repeat the old story of victory in the assembly elections.
Did you take the risk after calculation?
Political experts say that Kejriwal takes any decision very thoughtfully and there is a well thought strategy behind his resignation move. Actually, on one hand, by resigning, he has tried to end the question of morality raised by the BJP forever. He has said that the public’s vote will be a certificate of honesty. He believes that if his party wins once again, he can take over the post of Chief Minister again and then the opposition will not be able to corner him by saying that he is accused in the liquor scam.