Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: With Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party shooting off letters to Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) asking the two parties to clear their stand on 18 issues before it can decide on taking their support for forming government in Delhi, President’s rule in the national capital seems inevitable as the demands made by the new political outfit have already evoked severe criticism from leaders of both the national parties.
Kejriwal has set new conditions for the Congress and the BJP before it can decide on forming a government, claiming that both the parties have offered support to AAP.
Kejriwal’s move is being viewed as an attempt by the AAP to fend off criticism that it was unwilling to form the government ever since the Delhi gave a fractured mandate. Pressure has been mounting on the AAP to form the government, with BJP and the Congress playing all possible tricks to pressurise the new political party.
Read: 18 issues raised by Kejriwal in his letter to Sonia, Rajnath
The AAP on Friday sought 10 days, from Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung to decide on government formation and asked the BJP, Congress parties to clear their stand on the 18 issues raised by it.
Kejriwal`s remarks evoked sharp reactions from the BJP and the Congress. Both parties said the debutant party was shirking its responsibility to form the government.
Congress leader Arvinder Singh Lovely termed the writing of letter to Presidents of the Congress and the BJP by AAP leader Kejriwal as a "peculiar situation" and "lack of knowledge as they were new to the political arena."
"I would like to tell them that administration has two parts, Executive and Legislature, and we are supporting in Assembly. What they are saying has no relevance with the support to them as their 18 issues are part of Executive and Legislature has no interference in it," he said.
However, Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmed told a news agency: "Sonia Gandhi has marked Arvind Kejriwal`s letter to me and we will frame a reply and respond to it in a day or two."
Contradicting Kejriwal, the BJP said it has neither offered nor sought his support and wondered why he was writing letters asking questions from it.
"This is ridiculous, BJP has neither sought nor offered support to AAP then how come Kejriwal is writing letter and questioning us," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said in a tweet.
Though leaders from both the parties have reacted strongly to the AAP, it would be very interesting to see the response given by BJP president Rajnath Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
As no clarity on government formation emerged even a week after election results were announced pushing the city towards possibility of the President`s rule, Jung has sent a detailed report to Mukherjee on the current political logjam.
Sources said Jung has mentioned in the report BJP`s reluctance to form the government as well as AAP`s position on the issue and that government-formation in Delhi was not possible now.
AAP got 28 seats and finished second, leaving Delhi with a hung house. The BJP bagged 31 seats and the Congress managed to win only 8 in the 70-member Assembly.
AAP’s reaction comes after the Congress had in a letter written to Lt Gov Jung, offered outside and unconditional support for the AAP to form the next government.
Harshvardhan had rejected Lt Governor Jung’s offer to form the next government in Delhi, in view of the fact that his party was the single largest.
The BJP chief ministerial candidate said that the BJP would be a contributing and positive opposition to whichever party decides to form the government in Delhi, but added that whoever did so has the onerous task of establishing its majority on the floor of the House.
AAP, in its letter to the two parties, also sought complete statehood for Delhi, special audit of all electricity companies, regularisation of unauthorised colonies, stopping donations in private schools and improving working conditions of contract labour and lowly paid employees.
