Delhi LG Najeeb Jung quits, surprises Kejriwal

Kiran Bedi, Bassi among contenders for the post

Najeeb Jung resigned as the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Delhi on Thursday, taking by surprise even Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who had accused him of acting as the Centre’s stooge and creating hurdles for his government.

It is speculated that Jung, 65, a former bureaucrat, quit the post to make way for a new LG who could be chosen from among former Delhi police commissioner B S Bassi, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Lt Gov Jagdish Mukhi and Puducherry Lt Gov Kiran Bedi.

Jung may also be in line for the next vice president’s post in August 2017, according to sources. Kejriwal claimed that he did not see Jung’s resignation coming. “Sh Jung’s resignation is a surprise to me. My best wishes in all his future endeavours,” tweeted Kejriwal, after Raj Niwas issued a statement announcing Jung’s resignation and his desire to return to academics.

In Jharkhand capital Ranchi, Kejriwal told reporters that he wanted to know whether Jung was under any pressure to resign. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sources said the resignation could be linked to something allegedly incriminating related to Jung’s role in the privatisation of the public sector Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s Panna-Mukta oilfield that went to a consortium of Reliance-ONGC and British Gas.

After quitting the IAS, Jung had joined Reliance Industries. On a number of occasions, Kejriwal had accused Jung, a 1973-batch IAS officer, of shielding former chief minister Sheila Dikshit and Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani in corruption cases filed by the AAP government.

Jung, appointed on July 9, 2013, by the then Congress government at the Centre, served for over three years in Raj Niwas. Though there is no fixed tenure for an LG, there is an unstated convention of the Central government giving a maximum stint of three years or so to its nominee.

The LG’s exit is baffling as Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi also claimed that Jung had given no indication two days ago when he had a meeting with him.

Jung’s resignation comes months after the Delhi High Court’s decision upholding the primacy of his administrative powers over those of the AAP government and giving him the upper hand.

After the court verdict, Jung maintained that it was nobody’s victory but a clarification that incorrect things will have to be corrected. Thereafter, he set up a committee headed by former CAG V K Shunglu to examine more than 400 files related to decisions taken by the Kejriwal government.

In the past few days, Jung was preparing to send an “expectedly” adverse report against the AAP government to the Centre as a follow-up to the Shunglu Committee findings received earlier this month, sources said.

Claiming that he held no personal grudge against Kejriwal despite his severe criticism, the former VC of Jamia Millia said: “My DNA is such that I don’t get affected by abusive language.”

Jung’s exit may leave a vacuum in the city’s decision-making machinery unless his successor is appointed promptly by the Centre. In the absence of an LG, proceedings in key court cases may get delayed, along with decisions on files related to services, land and public order.

The Congress saw a suspicious deal between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kejriwal behind the sudden exit of Jung. “We want to know the real reason behind the resignation. We would never allow an RSS nominee to succeed Jung to the constitutional post,” said Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken.

The Delhi BJP claimed that Jung resigned as he was “upset” with the AAP government for stalling works. Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta said during a meeting on Wednesday that Jung told him that he was going on a week-long leave to Goa from December 25 to January 1.

A day after the Anti-Corruption Branch filed a charge sheet against Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal over an alleged job scam, she reacted to Jung’s exit by tweeting: “Double win for DCW. Delhi women freed from Jung tyranny.”