New Delhi: A day after the Centre told the Supreme Court that the President has given his consent to Jung’s proposal to invite Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the government in Delhi, Lt Governor Najeeb Jung on Wednesday held a meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Meanwhile an official statement from Jung’s office said thta the Lt Governor will explore the possibility of government formation in Delhi over the next few days.
“In view of the president’s approval to explore the possibility of installing a popular government in Delhi, Najeeb Jung would be exploring the possibility with the leaders of all political parties over the next few days,” the statement issued from LG House said.
With President Pranab Mukherjee giving his nod, all eyes are on Jung as to when he would send an invite to the BJP to form government in Delhi.
Reports say that it’s just a matter of time that Jung sends an invite to BJP, the single-largest party in the Delhi Assembly, to form government in the national capital.
The Constitution bench of Chief Justice HL Dattu, Justice H Chelameswar, Justice AK Sikri, Justice RK Agrawal and Justice Arun Mishra expressed its displeasure at the central government’s delaying formation of a government in Delhi, even as it was told that the President has given consent to invite the BJP for the purpose.
“Just before every date of the hearing, some statement is made about the attempt being made for the formation of a government but why things are not being done well before the date of the hearing?” asked the SC bench.
The SC will resume its hearing on Thursday.
The BJP has long maintained that it will take a decision on government formation in Delhi after getting an invite from the Lt Governor.
Though senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said that the party “was ready for fresh polls and would not engineer defections to form the government”, party’s Delhi unit chief Satish Upadhyay parried a question over the issue.
“We will take a decision at an appropriate time once LG invites us to form the government,” he told reporters.
Currently, BJP, along with ally Akali Dal’s lone MLA, has 29 legislators and will require the support of five more MLAs to prove majority in the Assembly.
The last government led by Arvind Kejriwal had resigned on 14 February after the party’s pet project, the Jan Lokpal Bill, could not be passed due to opposition from BJP and Congress.
President’s Rule was imposed in Delhi on February 17.
The Lt Governor had not favoured dissolution of the Delhi Assembly as recommended by the council of ministers headed by Kejriwal and kept the Assembly in suspended animation.
Congress and Aam Aadmi Party have been demanding immediate dissolution of the Assembly to pave way for holding of fresh elections.
