India gets only its second serving female chief minister as Delhi leader Arvind Kejriwal steps down
Atishi, one of the opposition AAP party’s most experienced figures, has served as Delhi’s minister for education, finance, revenues and law
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Your support makes all the difference.India is set to get only its second female state leader after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominated Atishi to succeed prominent opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal as the chief minister of Delhi.
Ms Atishi, who goes by a single name, is one of the most prominent figures in the Aam Aadmi Party, a national opposition party which leads Delhi’s local legislative assembly.
One of the best-known critics of prime minister Narendra Modi’s government, Mr Kejriwal is set to resign later on Tuesday only a few days after being released on bail by India’s top court. He and other members of his party are facing corruption charges which he says are politically motivated.
Speaking at the party headquarters in central Delhi, Ms Atishi said her only aim is to ensure Mr Kejriwal takes the office as chief minister again.
“I have only one request to the party volunteers and workers – please do not garland me, this is an unfortunate moment for Delhiites that Mr Kejriwal has been forced to resign,” she said, adding that the party will work to bring AAP to power once again.
The decision to name Ms Atishi as his successor was taken on Tuesday morning at a legislative meeting of AAP leaders in New Delhi.
She is one of the party’s most experienced figures, and has held several major portfolios in the Delhi government including education, finance, revenue and law. She is also a close aide of Mr Kejriwal.
Ms Atishi is expected to take the oath for the Indian capital’s highest office at around 4.30pm on Tuesday after Mr Kejriwal has formally submitted his resignation.
On Sunday, he addressed supporters from the AAP party headquarters and confirmed he would step down.
“Today I have come to ask the public whether you consider Kejriwal honest or a criminal,” he said. “I will resign from the post of chief minister two days from today,” he said, as party members responded with a chorus of “No’s!”.
Mr Kejriwal said he would return to the chief minister role if he wins a renewed public mandate at the next Delhi assembly elections, expected early next year.
It means this is the second time he has resigned in order to seek a fresh mandate in a decade as chief minister of Delhi. In 2014, Mr Kejriwal resigned within his first 50 days in office and returned a year later after landslide election win saw AAP take 67 out of the total 70 constituencies in Delhi.
While Delhi has some devolved powers, as the capital its policing and security are controlled by the central government let by Narendra Modi’s BJP, the party that will also be AAP’s primary rival in the city’s next local elections.
Several AAP members have been arrested in the same corruption case under which Mr Kejriwal was charged. The party’s leadership have been accused of taking bribes from liquor companies in exchange for opening up Delhi’s alcohol market to the private sector.
Among those arrested was former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who spent more than 18 months in jail and was also recently released on bail.
Amid those arrests Ms Atishi has at times been left as the most senior figure in the Delhi government, carrying out a number of duties on behalf of the chief minister, including holding press conferences.
In June she went on hunger strike to demand more drinking water for India’s capital, saying that 2.8 million people in Delhi were “aching for a drop of water” during a brutal heatwave.
She joins West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee as only the second female leader of India’s 36 states and union territories. Though India famously had a female prime minister in Indira Gandhi as far back as 1966, the country’s politics remains overwhelmingly dominated by men. Atishi is also the only woman in Delhi’s five-member cabinet.
Ms Atishi attended Oxford University’s Magdalen College where she earned a Chevening scholarship and finished her masters in History in 2003. A Rhodes scholar and graduate of India’s top college St Stephens, she has been associated with the party for more than 15 years, including during its early days as a popular anti-corruption movement.
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