Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal resigned yesterday from his post of Chief Minister of Delhi. Below are the sequence of events which led him to resign.
February 3: Chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi cabinet cleared the draft of the Jan Lokpal bill.
February 6: Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran writes to Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung terming the Jan Lokpal Bill “unconstitutional”.
February 7: Unfazed by solicitor general’s opinion, Kejriwal said he will write to Jung on plans to enact the Jan Lokpal bill without the centre’s concurrence.
February 9: Kejriwal said the central government’s permission was not needed to pass the bill.
February 9: He also met his erstwhile mentor Anna Hazare at Maharashtra Sadan in the national capital to inform him about the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s plan to introduce Jan Lokpal and Swaraj bills in the assembly.
“To remove corruption from the country, (I) can sacrifice the CM’s seat a 100 times,” Kejriwal told a gathering, adding, “The government will fall if the Jan Lokpal bill and the Swaraj bill are not passed.”
February 10: Kejriwal met Jung and discussed various issues relating to the Jan Lokpal bill.
February 10: In a statement, the Lt. Governor’s office said to avoid any dispute in the matter and to obtain full clarity, Jung has referred the issue to the law ministry for a “final opinion”.
February 12: Union law ministry upheld Jung’s stance that centre’s nod is mandatory for introducing the Jan Lokpal bill.
February 13: Despite law ministry’s ruling, Kejriwal decides to introduce the bill in the assembly on the first day of the special session. However, the bill could not be introduced because of repeated disruptions in the house, which finally had to be adjourned.
February 14: Kejriwal and his cabinet ministers resigned after the bill could not be introduced. While 42 legislators – including from the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress, the JD-U and an Independent – voted against its introduction, 27 AAP lawmakers were for it.