Delhi: Lt. Gov.Najeeb Jung to take charge of Delhi during President’s Rule

mangaloretoday.com

Delhi, Dec 15: It’s going to be President’s Rule for Delhi, with Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung in charge. Top sources in the L-G’s office have told Mail Today that President Pranab Mukherjee has been advised that no party is in a position to form the government in the state. "A file has been sent to the Rashtrapati Bhavan recommending President’s Rule," the source said Today.

The move came very shortly after Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal met Jung and asked for 10 more days to clear the fog hanging over government formation and set an 18-point charter of demands for the Congress and BJP to accept their support. But it seems that the academic-turned-administrator is in no mood to waste the electorate’s time and energy any further and wants to set the administrative process rolling, which has been in cold storage since the code of conduct came into force ahead of Delhi elections.

 

A top official told Mail Today: "The Lt.Gov. has recommended the President’s rule, but with a difference. The city under the recommended President’s rule administered by the Delhi L-G will go back to pre-1993 days when there was no Assembly and it did not have advisors for the then-L-G. The current L-G is of the firm view that Delhi is a small state which can be managed without such advice, bearing an indirect load on the state exchequer." This really means that the Jung will be effectively administering the state till there are fresh polls, which could be with the general elections next year.

The L-G appears to be responding to the need for urgency being expressed in the Capital to get a government going, with questions being raised about the intentions of political parties. With the results of assembly polls a week old now, the political situation of the Capital continues to be in uncertain, with neither BJP nor AAP consenting to form the government.

Silence

The BJP has been maintaining a constant silence under the guise of a "fractured mandate" and has kept itself aloof of the political churning. The AAP, meanwhile, has been keeping Delhiites guessing with its own set of demands for both BJP and Congress. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal had quite a lucrative offer - complete unconditional support to form the Government in Delhi from the vanquished Congress - to form a government, but he more or less asked them to go jump.

Even on Saturday, after meeting Jung, Kejriwal has taken a conditional stand to form the Government and has put the onus on the Congress and BJP, asking for 10 more days. But nothing concrete is expected, says a top government source, particularly after Congress MLAs pointing fingers at AAP for "shirking the moral responsibility to respect the Delhi mandate".

Interestingly, the AAP chief has also written to both Sonia Gandhi and Rajnath Singh asking their stand on 18 demands for developmental work in Delhi that AAP intends to see through, if they want to be part of the government in Delhi. Many within the Congress and BJP have rubbished the 18 demands as "delaying tactics". The move is also being seen as one to put the government ball into the hands of the larger parties.