Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal on Monday took a dig at the announcement that the Gujarat chief minister, Anandiben Patel, wanted her part to accept her resignation.
Taking to Twitter, Kejriwal said, “Anandi ji’s resignation was a fallout of the soaring popularity of AAP in Gujarat. BJP is terribly frightened in Gujarat.
His next tweet said, “Anandi ji’s resignation is the victory for AAP’s fight against corruption in Gujarat.”
In her Facebook post, Patel had asked the party leadership to relinquish her of the chief minister’s role.
She had written, “For the last some time there has been a tradition in the party that those who attain the age of 75, voluntarily retires from the post. I will attain the age of 75 in November,” the state’s first woman chief minister, who succeeded Narendra Modi on May 22, 2014, said in a Facebook post.
“Two months ago I had requested the party to relieve me from the post and today also through this letter, I request the party to relieve me of the post,” Patel said.
“I am asking the party to relieve me two months in advance as the new chief minister will require the time to work, when the state is going to face elections in 2017 and an important event like Vibrant Gujarat Summit to be held in January,” Patel said.
“It (the rule of 75) is a good thing and it will give a chance to young leaders to come up,” she added. Elections in the state are due in the later part of 2017. The unwritten convention in the party, set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in recent times has been that those attaining the age of 75 have to quit the post.