In an open threat to the Congress over the Jan lokpal Bill, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday threatened to quit as CM if his pet anti-graft legislation was not passed in the Assembly during a special session between February 13 and February 16.
“If the Jan lokpal Bill is not passed in the Assembly, I have no right to stay as CM,” the AAP leader was quoted as saying by TV channels. Incidentally, a day earlier Kejriwal had threatened to “go to any extent” to pass the Jan lokpal Bill. The Bill is being opposed both by the Congress, outside supporter to the AAP Government, as well as the BJP, the main Opposition party.
Asked if he could resign, the AAP leader had responded by affirming that he could go to any extent over the ‘huge’ issue of corruption. That (resignation) you interpret,” he added.
The Congress has maintained that it won’t withdraw support to the AAP, at least till the lok Sabha elections, despite “repeated provocations”, like the recommendation of a SIT probe into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and asking the anti-corruption branch to lodge an FIR in the Commonwealth Games scam, aimed at implicating former CM Sheila Dikshit.
last week, the Delhi Cabinet cleared the draft of the much talked-about Jan lokpal Bill which provides for covering all public servants - from Chief Minister to Group D employees - and seeks life term as maximum punishment for those found guilty of corruption.
The Jan lokpal Bill has courted controversy in recent weeks with the AAP Government refusing to seek the Centre’s approval and the l-G writing to the solicitor general, asking about the constitutionality of the bill. On Friday, senior AAP leader Ashutosh had called the l-G ‘an agent of the Congress’.