Impulsive quit as Delhi CM a mistake: Kejriwal
Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal Kejriwal admitted that his quit as Delhi Chief Minister was a wrong decision that results in widening communication gap with the people.
At an interview with The Economic Times, a daily of India, Kejriwal said he mistimed the decision to resign, and that mistake meant AAP suffers a communication gap with the people.
He said that AAP will have to be more careful in future, the daily reported.
However, he defended the decision to quit in principal.
Kejriwal said he does not regret the decision to quit on principle, but he feels that he should not have it done the same night BJP and Congress blocked the passage of the Jan Lokpal Bill.
"In hindsight, I think we should have taken a few more days to hold public meetings to explain the rationale behind our decision and then quit. The suddenness of our decision and the communication gap with masses allowed BJP and Congress to spread falsehood about us and label us as escapists. This is a mistake we made and we'll be more careful in future," he said.
AAP's political rivals as well as many neutral observers have critiqued it for running away from governance responsibility. This is the first time Kejriwal responded to that criticism by admitting an error on his and his party's part.
Responding to questions on whether this error has cost him middle-class support, Kejriwal said both yes and no.
"There are two categories of people who have been disappointed with AAP's resignation from government. The first category is made up of our staunch supporters who acknowledge our work in government and will continue to vote for us," he said.
"The second category is of people who want Arvind Kejriwal for CM and Modi for PM. People in this category could not handle the fact that I took Modi on directly and these people are very angry with me. We'll never get these supporters back, but this is a very small chunk," he added.
Comments