After arrest, BJP demands Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation

Leader of opposition in Delhi assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said Kejriwal has lost the moral and constitutional right to remain the CM.

President of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Delhi chief Virendra Sachdeva on Thursday demanded the resignation of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal following his arrest in the Delhi excise case even as the Aam Aadmi Party insisted that he will stay in the post.

Arvind Kejriwal being taken away by ED following his arrest on Thursday. (Sonu Mehta/HT Photo)

“Arrest of Kejriwal symbolises the defeat of corruption, and now Kejriwal should resign immediately. It is an insult to constitutional norms for leaders of the Kejriwal party to say that Kejriwal will run the government from jail,” said Sachdeva.

Leader of opposition in Delhi assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said Kejriwal has lost the moral and constitutional right to remain in the office of the chief minister. “Arvind Kejriwal has been arrested by ED and he no longer has any moral or constitutional right to remain in his post. Running the government from jail after Kejriwal’s arrest is not constitutional. Therefore, he should immediately resign from his post,” Bidhuri said.

“The statement of leaders of the Kejriwal’s party that Kejriwal will run the government from jail is an insult to constitutional norms. Hemant Soren also said the same thing, but upon being arrested, he had to resign, and the same will happen in Delhi as well,” said Sachdeva.

In a dramatic turn of events on Thursday evening, barely hours after the Delhi high court refused to grant the AAP chief protection from coercive action in connection with the excise policy case, a team from the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) arrived at Kejriwal’s residence for questioning him in the case. He was arrested at 9.10pm and was taken away from his official resident on Flagstaff Road in Civil Lines to ED office around 11.15pm.

Bidhuri said that the BJP has always been saying that corruption worth crores of rupees has taken place in the “liquor scam”. “Many leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party are already arrested and they are not even getting bail. As the head of the government, Kejriwal has been the mastermind of this entire scam but he has also been refusing to join the investigation. There was a scam of crores of rupees in the purchase of flow meters in Delhi Jal Board when Kejriwal was the chairman and ED has issued summons in that case too,” Bidhuri said.