NEW DELHI: Witnessing strong dissidence within the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Arvind Kejriwal met Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of government formation again.
The Congress, however, ruled out any support to the AAP. During the half-an-hour long meeting with Jung, Kejriwal and another party leader Manish Sisodia discussed the AAP stake on forming the government after they seek public opinion on this proposal.
The development came after party legislators during a meeting on Monday asked Kejriwal to form the government and also expressed their views of making Sisodia as the chief minister candidate. They expressed that Kejriwal should look at overall party affairs.
The AAP has faced an embarrassing rout across all the Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, largely attributed to its decision to quit government without taking the public into confidence.
To save themselves from negative perception, they have planned to go back to their old tactics -- public referendum. “We want people to advise us on what should we do next,” said an AAP political advisery committee member. But two AAP members – Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav – are against it and stated that before going for public opinion the party must seek the support of the Congress. Meanwhile, the Congress ruled out any support to the AAP and announced that that they will not support anyone to form the government and are preparing for the Assembly polls.
Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely announced that they will not support the AAP and will go for polls. “We will not support the AAP at any cost. We will go for polls rather than supporting the AAP who ran away from the responsibility. Whoever wants to form government they can do so. We will sit in the Opposition,” he said. “There is consensus in the party over this issue. It is up to the BJP to form government,” Lovely said.
On similar lines, Congress’ general secretary Ajay Maken stated that under no circumstances the Congress will support the AAP to form government in Delhi.
A few Congress legislators stated that party high command should ‘rethink about their stand’ and should support the AAP to keep saffron party away from the state.