No takers for Jung’s call to rule Delhi

The formal announcement of the dissolution of Delhi assembly is just a matter of time as all the three major parties expressed before Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung on Monday their inability to form or support any government in the city. Jung had invited the three major parties -- BJP, AAP and Congress separately for consultation on government formation in the city.

‘In the meeting with the L-G all the above parties expressed their inability to form the government. The L-G would be sending his report to the President,’ said a press statement from L-G office on Monday evening. On Monday morning L-G first invited largest political party BJP at 9 am to know their view on government formation. The BJP delegation constituted Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhaya and senior most BJP MLA Jagdish Mukhi. ‘We submitted our stand to the L-G in writing and it’s on L-G to take final decision,’ said Upadhayay.

He, however, did not disclose the contents of the letter handed over the L-G. According to sources, the decision of BJP to go for elections was finalised in the meeting of the Central Election Committee of BJP on Sunday evening. The central body of BJP on elections rejected the list of candidates for by-elections and conveyed to Upadhayay to prepare for full fledged assembly elections in the city most likely to be held before February.

In the afternoon at around 3 pm, Haroon Yausf, the leader of the Congress legislative party reached L-G office to present the views of his party. ‘On behalf of the Congress party, I have made a demand to L-G to dissolve the assembly and order fresh elections. The by-elections would be futile as it cannot remove political deadlock in the city,’ said Yausf. Former Delhi chief minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal and his colleague Manish Sisodia visited L-G in the evening to present their view on government formation.

Earlier, in the day a series of tweets by Kejriwal warmed up political activities in the city. ‘L-G should first ‘formally’ invite BJP (largest party), seek their formal stand, make it public, then invite next party, the way he did in December (2013),’ said Kejriwal in a tweet as the news spread that BJP leaders were meeting with L-G. ‘Has L-G actually invited BJP to form govt? Otherwise, why this secrecy by both L-G and BJP?,’ he said in another tweet. He later tweeted several times demanding BJP to make the letter public the party had handed over to L-G. In the evening he tweeted,’ finally congratulations to the people of Delhi.’

Kejriwal added, ‘In last 8 months, every effort was made to ‘buy’ our MLAs. They withstood all pressures n lived upto ppl’s expectations. Salute to them,’ in his last tweet on Monday. The BJP leaders however kept mum on the issue which was perceived as a gag order by the party’s high command. ‘There is no gag order but we have decided not to engage in futile statements till the final decision is made,’ said Vijender Gupta, former Delhi BJP president at Delhi BJP office.