Ending days of suspense, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal is expected to tell Lieutenant Governor (LG) Najeeb Jung on Monday that the debutant party will form the government in Delhi.
Kejriwal sought to assure the people that the party will keep its words. “We will fulfil all promises if our government is formed,” he said referring to the party’s manifesto that promised cutting power bills by half, giving 700 litres free water for all, getting statehood for the city and improving facilities in government hospitals and schools.
The party had promised to pass the Jan Lokpal bill on December 29 if it comes to power. Kejriwal hinted that the AAP government will do it but the deadline may have to be extended by a few days.
Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Prashant Bhushan announced in Bangalore on Sunday that the AAP will form the government with outside support of the Congress. “We will have to form the government as 70 plus per cent of people in Delhi are in favour of it,” he said at a workshop on Electoral Reforms and Democratisation of Politics.
In Delhi, leaders close to Kejriwal said he would meet the LG around noon on Monday. “A meeting of party leaders is scheduled on Monday morning, following which Kejriwal will address a press conference and then go to Raj Niwas to stake claim for forming the government,” an AAP leader said.
Kejriwal is likely to take oath as the next chief minister on Christmas day at a public place like Jantar Mantar or the Ramlila Maidan, where Anna Hazare took up 12-day fast in 2011.
Almost 90 per cent of the nearly one million respondents to the AAP’s public opinion poll want Kejriwal to head a government despite the party lacking the numbers to do so. Most of the naysayers are spread across 18 municipal wards in west Delhi’s rural areas.
The AAP, which has 28 MLAs, plans to form the government with the support of eight Congress MLAs in the 70-member House. Together, the two parties can achieve the magical figure of 36. In Bangalore, Prashant Bhushan expressed his apprehensions. He said the intention of the Congress in extending outside support was to show that the AAP is incapable of running the government. “We do not have majority. We do not know how long we will get this (Congress) support,” he stated.
Former Congress legislator Mukesh Sharma alleged that the AAP had misled people and made tall claims to come to power. “We are looking forward to see the AAP’s performance” he said. As the possibility of an AAP-led government in Delhi got stronger with each passing day, the focus in political circles shifted on the Cabinet of the new government.
“Kejriwal’s confidante and AAP spokesman Manish Sisodia is expected to get key portfolios like health, education and transport. Party legislator V K Binni, a councillor-turned-legislator, is a strong probable for urban development portfolio,” said a party leader.
“Mahender Yadav, another councillor who got elected to the Assembly on AAP ticket and journalist-turned-legislator Rakhi Birla are also likely to be considered for the cabinet berths,” he said.
In the new government, the ministers will be known as “jan sevaks” and the chief minister will be known as “mukhya jan sevak”, said an AAP leader.