Zee Media Bureau/Ritesh K Srivastava
New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday apologised to the nation for quitting as Delhi Chief Minister early this year after running the government for 49 days and said that his party wants fresh mandate.
Addressing a press briefing, Kejriwal said, “Many people are annoyed with us for resigning, they wanted us to continue. I apologise to the whole nation for this mistake.”
Admitting that the party is short of options to form government in Delhi with the Congress ruling out support to AAP again, Kejriwal said, “We will go for fresh elections as there are almost no chances of government formation in Delhi. We will travel across the capital to gauge people`s mood.”
The AAP chief also ruled out holding any referendum saying, “Our chances of forming government are negligible, so we want fresh elections. We are gearing up for it.”
Kejriwal clear the air on his party`s next move following a meeting of his MLAs held at his rsidence today. It is believed that a large number of AAP leaders have opposed the idea of holding a referendum over its attempts to form the next government in Delhi and pressed for re-elections as the best option.
Kejriwal had on Tuesday told Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung that his party wants to form the government in Delhi, and asked him not to dissolve the Legislative Assembly for a week.
In a letter to the Lt. Governor, the Aam Aadmi Party said it will hold public meetings in Delhi to obtain people`s opinion on forming the government.
"We have told the Lt. Governor that we want to form the government in Delhi. We asked him not to dissolve the assembly for a week," a senior party leader said.
The leader, however, said since the Congress has ruled out outside support to the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, there was not much the party could do.
The AAP has 28 legislators while the Congress has eight in a house of 70.
Reacting to this, Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely said, "Our stand is clear that we will not support the AAP again."
Asked if he would consult the party high command, he said: "I am the boss in Delhi. It is up to me whether to support the AAP."
Some news reports had surfaced that three Congress legislators reportedly expressed their desire to extend outside support to the AAP.
After the Lok Sabha polls, the AAP and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was the single largest party with 32 members, began exploring possibilities to form the government in Delhi, which has been under President`s rule since Feb 17.
In February, Chief Minister Kejriwal resigned over his failure to pass the Jan Lokpal bill in the assembly.
President`s Rule was imposed in Delhi on February 17. The Lt Governor had not favoured dissolution of the Assembly and kept it in suspended animation.
Two days back, senior BJP leader harsh Vardhan said it would prefer fresh election than forming a government through "manipulation". In the Lok Sabha elections, BJP won all the seven seats in Delhi while AAP came second in all seats. Congress candidates were relegated to third position.
