Atishi Singh named Delhi's Chief Minister after Arvind Kejriwal's exit

Ruling Aam Aadmi Party has announced that Delhi minister Atishi Marlena Singh is set to become the new chief minister of India’s capital territory New Delhi after Arvind Kejriwal's resignation.

The announcement was made by AAP chief Kejriwal himself in a meeting with AAP lawmakers in the capital.

The development comes after incumbent CM Kejriwal on Sunday, a day after securing bail from the country's top court in a graft case, announced that he will step down from the said post.

Announcing his resignation as chief minister at a meeting with AAP workers, AAP chief said he would only return to the post if people certified his honesty by voting for him in the upcoming Delhi election. He called on the election commission to bring forward the Delhi election to November, from February 2025.

Kejriwal is a fierce critic of Indian Prime Minister Modi and a former anti-corruption crusader whose decade-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) quickly rose to mainstream politics.

The new CM nominee, 43, is a key member of the AAP and has held several portfolios in the city government including those of finance and education. She is currently the only woman minister in the Delhi cabinet and holds the most portfolios in the AAP government, reported India Today.

Atishi entered politics in 2013 when she joined the AAP and was later part the of Jal Satyagraha protests in 2015, reported the Economic Times.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, she went up against former Indian cricketer and BJP candidate Gautam Gambhir, but lost to the latter by a margin exceeding 450,000 votes.

However, she contested from South Delhi's Kalkaji constituency in the 2020 Delhi Legislative Assembly polls and won against another BJP candidate and managed to win by more than 10,000 votes.