Delhi minister Atishi will take over as Chief Minister after Arvind Kejriwal resigns from the top post after a meeting with Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena this afternoon. The decision was taken at an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators’ meeting today. 

At the meeting of AAP MLAs today, party leader Dilip Pandey proposed that Mr Kejriwal decide on the Chief Minister face. When the AAP national convener proposed Ms Atishi’s name, all AAP MLAs stood up and accepted it and Ms Atishi was elected leader of the legislature party. 

Ms Atishi now holds key portfolios in the Delhi government such as Education and Public Works Department. An Oxford University alumnus and a Rhodes scholar, Ms Atishi has worked extensively in the AAP’s flagship exercise to overhaul education in Delhi’s schools.

An MLA from Kalkaji, the 43-year-old became a minister after Mr Sisodia was arrested in a corruption case linked to Delhi’s now-scrapped liquor policy. When Mr Kejriwal and Mr Sisodia were behind bars, Atishi articulated the party’s position at party events and media exchanges.

On August 15, Mr Kejriwal chose her to hoist the tricolour at Delhi government’s Independence Day event. While Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena foiled the plan, it was clear that the AAP leadership placed immense faith in Ms Atishi.

Speaking to the media after the announcement, Ms Atishi thanked her mentor Mr Kejriwal. “Arvind Kejriwal has trusted me and given me this responsibility. I appeal to all people of Delhi to make your son, your brother Arvind Kejriwal the Chief Minister again because he is honest.”

The elevation of Ms Atishi comes two days after Mr Kejriwal’s shocking announcement to step down from the top post. Addressing a gathering of party workers on Sunday, the Delhi Chief Minister said, “Two days later, I will resign as Chief Minister. I will not sit on that chair till the people announce their verdict. Elections in Delhi are months away. I got justice from the legal court, now I will get justice from the people’s court. I will sit on the Chief Minister’s chair only after the order of the people.”

Mr Kejriwal’s Sunday shocker came two days after the Supreme Court granted him bail in a corruption case linked to Delhi’s now-scrapped liquor policy. The bail order paved the way for his release from prison, six months after his arrest.

Assembly polls in the national capital are scheduled for February, but Mr Kejriwal has demanded that they be held in November along with the Maharashtra election. The AAP leader and his former Deputy Manish Sisodia have said they would go to the people to seek their support and not return to the top jobs before the people’s verdict.

In an apparent reference to the political row over his visit to Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud’s home for Ganesh Puja, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the “Congress and its ecosystem” were angry because he participated in Ganesh Puja.

Addressing a rally in Odisha’s capital Bhubaneswar, the Prime Minister said, “Ganesh Utsav is not just a festival of faith for our country. It played a very important role in the freedom movement.”

“Even at that time, the British who followed the policy of divide and rule used to hate Ganesh Utsav. Even today, the power-hungry people busy in dividing and breaking the society are having problems with Ganesh Puja. You must have seen that the people of Congress and its ecosystem are angry because I participated in Ganesh Puja,” he said.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has asked its Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal to resign after her comments on senior leader Atishi, who has been named the next Chief Minister of Delhi by Arvind Kejriwal. Senior AAP leader and MLA Dilip Pandey said Ms Maliwal reads out the BJP’s script despite being sent to the Parliament by the AAP.

“Swati Maliwal takes the Rajya Sabha ticket from AAP but takes the script to react from BJP. If she has even a little shame, she should resign as a Rajya Sabha MP and choose the path to Rajya Sabha on a BJP ticket. If she wants to be in Rajya Sabha, she should get ticket from BJP,” said Mr Pande.