Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Monday conveyed Delhi Minister Raaj Kumar Anand’s resignation to the President, PTI reported. The order comes on the recommendation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Raj Niwas officials said on Monday.
In the only official communication that Arvind Kejriwal made during the period when he was out on interim bail in the Delhi excise policy case, he recommended acceptance of Anand’s resignation, they said.
“The LG has forwarded the resignation to the President of India for consideration, as required by law,” an official said.
Anand had resigned from the cabinet and resigned from the ruling AAP on April 10. He had alleged diversion of funds for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for other purposes and schemes and that Dalits were not given adequate representation in the party.
He joined the BSP on May 5 and contested the Lok Sabha elections from New Delhi constituency on a party ticket.
Anand held several portfolios including Social Welfare, SC/ST Welfare and Cooperatives.
In his recommendation to the LG, Kejriwal did not allocate Anand’s departments to any other minister, officials said, according to the PTI report.
“Without any recommendation for reassignment, all these departments will automatically be handed over to the prime minister who is in prison,” the official added.
Kejriwal surrendered at Delhi’s Tihar jail on Sunday after his interim bail in the excise-related money laundering case ended on June 1. He was granted 21-day relief for campaigning in the Lok Sabha elections.
After the elections, Arvind Kejriwal returns to Tihar
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday he would return to jail not because he was involved in corruption but because he had raised his voice against “dictatorship”. Kejriwal was released from jail on May 10 on interim bail granted by the Supreme Court in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam to campaign in the Lok Sabha polls.
The bail expired on June 1, the day the seventh and final phase of the general elections was held. Addressing AAP workers and leaders at the party office before surrendering at Tihar jail, Kejriwal said he campaigned during the Lok Sabha elections to “save” the country. “I’m going back to jail not because I was involved in corruption but because I raised my voice against the dictatorship,” he said. Kejriwal claimed that all exit polls predicting a third term for the BJP-led NDA were “false”.
“Yesterday the exit polls were published and I can tell you in writing that they are false. In Rajasthan, there are 25 parliamentary seats, but an exit poll gave them 33 seats. What was the reason they had to publish false exit poll results? he said, taking aim at the BJP. Exit polls on Saturday predicted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will retain power for a third consecutive term, with the NDA expected to win a huge majority in the polls.