On Sunday, Delhi CM Atishi presented her resignation to Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, a day after her party, AAP, suffered a resounding defeat in the national capital, with the BJP returning to power with 48 seats in the 70-member Assembly.
Atishi, who took over as Chief Minister in September last year after Arvind Kejriwal resigned after being released on bail in the liquor policy scam, handed her resignation to Saxena at Raj Niwas.
While party’s big guns like AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, and minister Saurabh Bharadwaj were defeated, Atishi held her Kalkaji seat against BJP candidate Ramesh Biduri.
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The AAP, which has been in power in Delhi for the past decade, won 22 seats in the February 5 elections. The party had 62 members in the outgoing legislature, while the BJP had only eight.
“I have won my seat, but this is not a time for celebration — this is the time to fight. The battle against the BJP’s authoritarianism will continue,” Atishi stated following the election results.
However, her victory is expected to solidify her place in the AAP, where she has gradually progressed through the ranks.
Meanwhile, the BJP has begun high-level meets to select the next Chief Minister of Delhi.
The BJP is poised to stake its claim to power next week, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns from a foreign tour, according to party leaders.
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Parvesh Verma, who defeated AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal from the New Delhi seat, has emerged as a leading candidate for the Chief Minister’s position.
Other prominent names in the race include senior BJP leader Vijender Gupta, a former Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly; Satish Upadhyay, a prominent Brahmin leader and former state BJP president; Ashish Sood, the Delhi BJP general secretary with close ties to central leaders; and Jitendra Mahajan, a strong RSS representative from the Vaishya community.
