AAP minister Atishi is set to become Delhi chief minister after party national convener Arvind Kejriwal nominated her and she was unanimously elected as the leader of the legislature party.

After Sushma Swaraj and Sheila Dikshit, Atishi, a first-time MLA, will be Delhi's third woman chief minister.

Later on Tuesday, Kejriwal submitted his resignation to lieutenant governor V.K. Saxena, four days after his release on bail in the excise policy case. Atishi accompanied Kejriwal and staked claim to form the government.

After the legislature party meeting on Tuesday afternoon, an emotional Atishi said: “Delhi has only one CM and his name is Arvind Kejriwal…. I request all party activists, MLAs and the people of Delhi not to congratulate me, not to garland me because this is a time of sorrow for me and all the people of Delhi that our beloved CM has quit today.”

AAP minister and Delhi unit convener Gopal Rai said that the party MLAs have tasked Atishi with two main responsibilities.

"First, we along with the two crore people of Delhi, shall continue to work despite all the obstacles (created by) the BJP. Second, the BJP wants to stop all the work done for the people of Delhi under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal.

"The BJP wants to stop free electricity and water. It wants to ruin government schools, wants to close mohalla clinics, wants to stop bus travel of women and pilgrimage of elderly people. The BJP had stopped the pension of elderly people for five months. Atishi has been given the responsibility to foil all the conspiracies of the BJP,” Rai said.

Atishi, the MLA from Kalkaji in South Delhi, is one of the founding members of the AAP. She has 13 portfolios under her. She topped Delhi University in BA (history) from St Stephen’s College in 2001 and has a double Master's from Oxford University. She is credited with improving government schools as an adviser to the AAP government.

During the 2019 polls, she dropped her given surname Marlena, which her activist parents derived from Marx and Lenin. Atishi was criticised for her communal utterances comparing a municipal tax in 2021 with those imposed by Emperor Aurangzeb, and falsely accusing “Bangladeshis and Rohingyas” for a minor riot in 2022.