A day before party MLAs convene to choose Arvind Kejriwal's replacement, who is expected to submit his resignation to Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, AAP leaders held a series of meetings on Monday to discuss potential candidates for the chief minister position.
Days after being granted bail to leave Tihar jail in connection with the excise policy case, the national convenor of the AAP announced on Sunday that he would step down in 48 hours and called for early elections in Delhi. He promised that until he received a "certificate of honesty”,from his people, he would not take the chief ministerial seat.
Monday saw a number of AAP meetings as Kejriwal met one-on-one at his official residence with members of the political affairs committee, the party's highest decision-making body, to get their opinion on his successor.
The AAP chief met with senior leaders earlier in the day to discuss the party's nominee for chief minister, including Raghav Chadha of the Rajya Sabha and Manish Sisodia, the former deputy chief minister.
According to party insiders, Atishi, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gahlot, and Saurabh Bharadwaj, ministers in Delhi, are being mentioned as potential candidates. Speaker of the assembly Ram Niwas Goel and Kejriwal's wife, Sunita, are also likely candidates. At 4:30 pm today, Kejriwal will meet with the lieutenant governor and is expected to submit his resignation.
AAP will convene a legislative party meeting at 11:30 am prior to this meeting in order to finalize its choice for the chief minister. Following the political affairs committee meeting, Bharadwaj told reporters that Kejriwal had "one-on-one talks" with party leaders to get their opinion on his replacement.