Arvind Kejriwal takes charge as chief minister of Delhi at the Secretariat
Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party has taken charge as the eighth chief minister of Delhi. He arrived at the Delhi secretariat office on Saturday afternoon, after taking oath before a sea of supporters at the Ramlila ground. He pledged to ensure a corruption-free Delhi in the next five years.
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"Last time we had romanticism; now we have confidence that we will make Delhi the first corruption-free state," said the new chief minister, asking citizens once again to help his government end graft. "If anyone asks you for a bribe, don't refuse. Use your phone to record his voice, give it to me," he urged. (Highlights of Arvind Kejriwal's speech)
Arvind Kejriwal began his speech with "Bharat Mata ki jai" and ended by singing a song. In the speech, he warned, "The Congress and BJP suffered because of their arrogance," and also, "God punished us for our arrogance for contesting the Lok Sabha elections. We learnt our lessons."
He shared that he had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that with majority governments at the Centre and Delhi, it was a "golden opportunity" to give full statehood to Delhi. "PM has a lot to do, travel abroad, he cannot respond to crimes etc. ... so I told him let Dilliwallahs run Delhi," he said.
He dismissed all talk of AAP prepping to go national, pledging, "For 5 years I will be in Delhi and we will serve the people of Delhi."
Mr Kejriwal promised an end to Delhi's notorious VIP culture, saying AAP ministers would not use lal battis or red beacons on their cars. Cars, he said, they would have to use for work and requested the media not to make too much of it.
"67 seats is a miracle, it can't be the work of one man. It is a message from God," said Mr Kejriwal, thanking Delhi for its love. "It was raining seats," he said about AAP's gigantic win in the Delhi elections this week. AAP has won 67 of Delhi's 70 seats, crushing the BJP and the Congress.
Mr Kejriwal, who has been running a high fever for some days, said he had a Crocin before leaving for Ramlila grounds. He later held the new Delhi government's first cabinet meeting .
He arrived at the Ramlila grounds at about noon to the strains of the shehnai and took oath with six other AAP leaders - Manish Sisodia, who will be Deputy chief minister, Satyendar Jain, Jitendra Tomar, Gopal Rai, Sandeep Kumar and Asim Ahmed Khan.
AAP had invited members of the union cabinet, and BJP and Congress leaders for the oath ceremony, none of whom attended. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed his inability to attend due to prior engagements in Maharashtra.
Mr Kejriwal had resigned as Delhi chief minister at the head of a minority government exactly a year ago after he was unable to push an anti-corruption bill. He had quit after 49 days in office.
