‘I will only work with one goal – to make Kejriwal the CM again’: Atishi

Nominated by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislative party as Delhi’s next chief minister, Atishi on Tuesday said her only objective as the Capital’s top elected officer is to make Arvind Kejriwal chief minister once again and to keep the government’s welfare schemes running.
“The people of Delhi, the AAP MLAs and I, being the chief minister, will now work with only one objective till the elections take place in a few months — we have to make Arvind Kejriwal the chief minister of Delhi again,” said Atishi.
“Delhi has only one chief minister, and his name is Arvind Kejriwal,” she said, adding that the AAP chief will become chief minister again only after the city’s residents vote his government into power during the next assembly elections, proving that they “trust his innocence”.
Atishi was speaking to reporters outside the CM’s residence in Civil Lines soon after the legislative party picked her as Kejriwal’s successor. She thanked Kejriwal for trusting her with the responsibility.
Delhi’s assembly elections are likely to be held in February 2025. To be sure, while announcing his decision to resign on Sunday, Kejriwal demanded that assembly elections in Delhi be held in November alongside the Maharashtra polls.
The Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged that “Atishi was going to be a puppet CM.”
Meanwhile, an AAP leader said Atishi’s new cabinet will have the full strength – seven ministers, including the chief minister. The Arvind Kejriwal cabinet had only six ministers, including Kejriwal, since April when social welfare minister Raaj Kumar Anand resigned citing differences with the AAP leadership. All the cabinet ministers will have to be sworn in afresh because as soon as the resignation of the CM is accepted the cabinet stands dissolved.
According to party leaders aware of the developments, ministers in Arvind Kejriwal’s cabinet – Saurabh Bharadwaj, Kailash Gahlot, Gopal Rai, Imran Hussain – are likely to retain a spot in the new cabinet. Her cabinet is also likely to get two new ministers, one of whom will likely be Dalit. The people cited above said that Kondli MLA Kuldeep Kumar is likely to be the Dalit minister. However, AAP leaders have officially not confirmed this.
The AAP leader quoted above also said that the names of the cabinet ministers have not yet been finalised.
On Tuesday, flanked by AAP MP and the party’s national general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak, Delhi state convenor and cabinet minister Gopal Rai, deputy speaker of Delhi legislative assembly Rakhi Birla, MLA Dilip Pandey, Sanjeev Jha, and other senior leaders, Atishi accused the BJP of running a “relentless campaign against AAP leaders accusing them of baseless corruption”.
“For the last two years, the BJP has left no stone unturned to harass Arvind Kejriwal, to conspire against him. The BJP accused a man, who quit as IRS commissioner, resigned from the post of chief minister after contesting elections for the first time after forming a new political party, of corruption by filing fake cases against him. The BJP unleashed its agencies – ED and CBI – after him and kept him in jail for six months in a fake case. Finally, the Supreme Court granted him bail and … reprimanded the central government and its agencies. They (SC) said that the central government’s agency is like a ‘caged parrot’ and Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest was wrong,” said Atishi.
In a speech peppered with accolades for Kejriwal, Atishi stressed that he resigned because the bail from the Supreme Court is not enough for him – he wanted to go to the court of the people (elections) and seek their judgment.
“He (Kejriwal) said… when the people of Delhi tell me they want to see me as the chief minister, and that I am honest, only then I will sit on the CM’s chair. I don’t think that we will find such an example of sacrifice in the history of democracy as Kejriwal has put before the country today,” Atishi said.
She asked party workers and people not to congratulate her or offer flowers, bouquets because for her “it is a sad moment that a popular Delhi CM (Kejriwal) has resigned today.”
She added the people want to see Kejriwal as the chief minister again because they know he is honest and that without him, the free education, free power, mohalla clinics, and free bus-rides schemes will be stopped.
“They know that if an honest person like Kejriwal is no longer the CM, they (BJP) will stop free electricity, the government schools will be in a poor condition; the quality of treatment that is available in government hospitals, the free medicines that are available will stop; the mohalla clinics will shut; the free bus travel for women will stop; the pilgrimage for the elderly will stop,” she said.
Meanwhile, the BJP alleged that by nominating Atishi as the new CM, Kejriwal has pushed Delhi towards “anarchy and communism”.
“Atishi herself said that Kejriwal will remain the CM, and she is merely a face, indicating that she will be a puppet CM. The only question is whether the remote will be in Kejriwal’s hands or [Manish] Sisodia’s. AAP leaders are now trying to give the party a makeover, but no matter how hard they try, they won’t be able to hide the marks of corruption,” said Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva.
Meanwhile, an officer from the security unit of the city police, who did not want to be named, said that the process of providing security cover to Atishi will be initiated on Wednesday and she will soon be considered a special protectee. “The decision of the category of the security cover will be taken as per her threat assessment report that will be conducted and finalised by the ministry of home affairs (MHA). She is likely to get the Z-category security cover, as per the protocol,” the officer said.
About the decision on continuing the cover for Arvind Kejriwal, it will be taken depending upon his personal threat perception. “Kejriwal is currently getting Z-Plus security. Further cover for him will be reviewed by MHA,” the officer added