The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre was trying to impose President’s Rule in Delhi. Saying that the party has received several indications to this effect after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest on March 21, AAP leaders held multiple press conferences in the city on Friday.
Senior AAP leader and Delhi Minister Atishi said events in the recent past indicate the possibility of imposition of the President’s Rule. “In the last few months, no senior IAS officer has been posted in Delhi. Posts are lying vacant in departments but no postings have taken place. Bureaucrats have stopped attending meetings called by Ministers on the pretext of the Model Code of Conduct [for the Lok Sabha election]. The Lieutenant-Governor has been writing letters to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) over the functioning of the Delhi government,” she said.
Cabinet Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena has been repeatedly “writing letters regarding the Delhi government to the MHA for the last one week without any reason over matters that are beyond his purview”.
At another press conference, AAP national chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said the imposition of President’s Rule would be illegal since the government enjoys a majority. “We proved our majority through a floor test in February,” she said.
BJP reacts
Responding to the allegations, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said it was surprising that the “fear of President’s Rule” was haunting AAP, which has 62 MLAs in the 70-member Assembly. Delhi BJP secretary and party’s candidate from the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency Bansuri Swaraj said Mr. Kejriwal has been running a government without conscience for more than nine years.
“Now when scams are being exposed, he wants to keep his legislators together under the fear of President’s Rule,” she said.