AAP leaders meet Kejriwal's wife, assert AAP chief should stay CM

AAP MLAs on Tuesday met Arvind Kejriwal's wife Sunita Kejriwal and asserted that the Delhi chief minister should continue to run the government from jail and not step down.

Kejriwal is in judicial custody till April 15 after his arrest last month by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money-laundering case linked to his government's now-scrapped excise policy.

During Tuesday's meeting, the AAP MLAs told Sunita Kejriwal that two crore people of Delhi stand with the chief minister and he should not resign at any cost, party leaders said.

Of the AAP's 62 MLAs in Delhi, 55 were present during the meeting.

Four MLAs are out of station while three -- Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain -- are in jail, the AAP leaders said.

The BJP has demanded that Kejriwal should resign as chief minister following his arrest in connection with the alleged liquor policy scam.

Senior leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said the MLAs wanted to meet Sunita Kejriwal after Kejriwal's arrest. However, the meeting was delayed due to the party's protests against the arrest and the opposition INDIA bloc's rally at Ramlila Maidan.

The AAP MLAs met Sunita Kejriwal and nearly two dozen of them expressed their views, the Delhi Minister said.

Since Kejriwal can interact with her through videoconferencing from Tihar jail, the MLAs urged Sunita Kejriwal to communicate to him their message that he should keep running the government from behind bars without tendering his resignation, Bharadwaj added.