Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi will be the chief minister of Delhi till the next Assembly election in the national capital, the party announced on Tuesday.

At a press conference, Aam Aadmi Party leader Gopal Rai also reiterated his outfit’s demand that the Delhi elections be held by November instead of February, when they are scheduled to take place.

This came after the party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday that he would resign as the chief minister in two days and return to the post only after voters expressed their support for him.

Kejriwal’s statement had come two days after he was released on bail in the Delhi liquor policy case.

On Monday, he held discussions with members of the Aam Aadmi Party’s political affairs committee in the capital to pick his successor.

Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Monday also said that Kejriwal sought time from Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena to submit his resignation, The Hindu reported. “He [Kejriwal] has got the time to meet him [Saxena] tomorrow [Tuesday].”

The chief minister is expected to tender his resignation at 4.30 pm during the day.

Commenting on Atishi being named the next chief minister, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar told India Today that she would be “remote-controlled” by Kejriwal.

He added that the Aam Aadmi Party chief should have resigned months ago.

Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said that Atishi becoming the chief minister would not change the Aam Aadmi Party’s “character” that has been tainted by corruption allegations, reported PTI.

Kejriwal’s announcement

Addressing party workers in the capital on Sunday, Kejriwal said: “After two days, I will resign as the chief minister. And I will not sit on the chief minister’s chair till the people pronounce their verdict.”

Kejriwal demanded that the next Delhi elections be held in November along with the Maharashtra Assembly polls.

Two days earlier, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan granted bail to him on the grounds that the chargesheet had been filed in the case and that the trial was unlikely to be completed in the near future.

Kant held that Kejriwal’s prolonged imprisonment constituted an “unjust deprivation of liberty” but maintained that there were no procedural irregularities in his arrest. Bhuyan, however, said that the chief minister’s arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the liquor policy case was unjustified.

The CBI and Enforcement Directorate have alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party government modified Delhi’s now-scrapped liquor policy by increasing the commission for wholesalers from 5% to 12%. This allegedly facilitated the receipt of bribes from wholesalers who had a substantial market share and turnover.

Also read: Why has Arvind Kejriwal decided to resign as Delhi chief minister?