Kejri apologises for quitting, seeks fresh mandate in city

Aam Aadmi Party founder Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday “apologised” to the people of Delhi for his resignation as Delhi chief minister.

He also took a U-turn from his stand of seeking a referendum from Delhiites on government formation or elections and said the party will go for fresh Assembly polls.
“After considering all aspects, I apologise to the people, who wanted the AAP government in Delhi to continue.

Our party wanted to know the reasons for the anger of the people against us and we were told that during the 49 days in office, the AAP government had reduced power tariff by half, provided free water and corruption in public dealing had disappeared,” Kejriwal said in a statement.

His apology came three months after his resignation on the stalled Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi Assembly.

Kejriwal said that during his visits to many places in the country for the party’s campaign in the Lok Sabha elections, he faced questions on his sudden resignation.
“During the Lok Sabha campaigns, a large number of people were quite angry with us for having quit the Delhi government. We were asked why did we leave the government? Why did we go away? This also gave our political opponents an opportunity to spread misinformation about us,” he added.

A day after requesting Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung for not dissolving the Delhi Assembly for a week to seek Delhiites’ opinion on government formation, he said that in the current political scenario, it’s impossible to form a government. “We have unanimously decided to seek a fresh election to the state Assembly,” he added.

Kejriwal, however, defended his resignation and said it was done on “moral grounds” as the Jan Lokpal Bill was not passed in the Assembly.

The party is planning to hold meetings across Delhi to apologise to people.
“Over the next seven-10 days, we will hold meetings all over Delhi and will take our apology to people. We will begin preparations to seek a fresh mandate to resume the relief of cheap electricity and free water to people, apart from providing a corruption-free administration,” he added.