Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Saturday that he will sit on an indefinite fast from March 1 demanding full statehood for Delhi, ANI reported.

“From 1 March we will launch the movement to make Delhi a full state and we will not end it till Delhi gets full statehood,” he told the Assembly on Saturday during the Budget Session. “People have given us so much that even if we have to sacrifice our lives for them, it is immaterial.”

“Democracy has been implemented in entire nation, but not Delhi,” he added outside the House. “Public votes and selects a government, but the government has no power. So we’re starting a movement on March 1.”

“The elected government of Delhi cannot give people justice, work for them and take up development works because it lacks power and the central government obstructs its functioning,” Kejriwal said, according to PTI. “Is the value of Delhi voters less than other states?”

People of Delhi were “suffering due to high crime rate, insanitation and lack of development” because the Centre controlled the Delhi Police and the municipal corporations, he added.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi assembly: I am going to sit on an indefinite fast from March 1 for full statehood of Delhi pic.twitter.com/z1X2TOQDbY — ANI (@ANI) February 23, 2019

Kejriwal has stepped up the demands for statehood over the last week. On Thursday, he had promised full statehood for Delhi in two years if his party is elected in all seven seats in the Delhi Lok Sabha elections, according to the Hindustan Times.

“Ten years from the day Delhi is given the status of full statehood, I will give every Delhiite a concrete house to live in,” he had said at a gathering in north Delhi. “This time do not vote to elect the Prime Minister. Vote to get full statehood for Delhi.”