After getting bail from the Supreme Court and being released from jail, Arvind Kejriwal had talked about early elections at least once. After that he went silent. The question is, did Kejriwal want early elections in Delhi? Informed sources say that before resigning, his intention was to dissolve the assembly and go for early elections. There is nothing surprising in this. State governments have been holding early elections. The then Chief Minister of Telangana K Chandrashekhar Rao suddenly dissolved the assembly in 2018, while the term of the assembly was till May 2019. He did not want elections to be held along with the Lok Sabha. So he dissolved the assembly and elections were held there in November 2018 along with Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
The term of Delhi Assembly is till mid-February. In such a situation, if Kejriwal had recommended dissolution of the Assembly after coming out of jail i.e. any day after 13 September, then it is possible that the Delhi Assembly elections would have been held along with the elections of two states in November. It is worth noting that elections are to be held in Maharashtra and Jharkhand in November. Instead of dissolving the Assembly and holding early elections while being the caretaker Chief Minister, Kejriwal remained silent by just giving a statement that early elections should be held. In response to this, BJP has also said that it is ready for elections at any time. But then Kejriwal did not give any statement on this.
According to sources familiar with the Aam Aadmi Party, Kejriwal had considered the possibility of early elections even when he was in jail. He wanted to contest the elections from jail and turn the Delhi elections into a referendum on his face. But later he gave up on this idea. It is being said that he gave up this idea after seeing the possibility of Delhi Assembly elections along with Haryana. Actually, the Bharatiya Janata Party was already ready for Delhi elections to be held along with Haryana. That is why after Kejriwal’s statement of early elections, BJP state president Virendra Sachdeva said that the party is ready for elections at any time. Sources say that the BJP believed that if elections are held along with Haryana, then there will be no possibility of coordination between Congress and Aam Aadmi Party. Both parties will fight against each other and Congress can cut some more votes. That is why Kejriwal gave up the idea of elections while in jail. He did not recommend dissolving the assembly after coming out of jail because he felt that he would not get much sympathy if he contested the elections as a caretaker CM. There was also a fear that the Lieutenant Governor may delay or delay the recommendation of dissolving the assembly. After this, there was also a possibility that even after the dissolution of the Assembly, the Election Commission would hold elections on time i.e. in February 2025. Therefore, Kejriwal decided to play the emotional card by resigning from the post of CM, making a woman CM and vacating the bungalow etc.