Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday condemned the detention of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MPs who were protesting near Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence to demand special status to Andhra Pradesh.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor also went to meet the parliamentarians at Tughlak Road police station.
“TDP MPs taken to Tughlak Road Police station for demanding special status for AP (Andhra Pradesh). I went and met them at police station in solidarity. We condemn their detention and fully support demand for special status of Andhra Pradesh,” Kejriwal said in a tweet.
After meeting the TDP MPs, Kejriwal said that their demands were “genuine” and Andhra Pradesh should be given special status.
“The TDP’s demand should be considered. It is really sad that when the MPs went to meet the Prime Minister they were arrested. This is not democracy. This is not fair. We strongly condemn this (the detention of MPs) and entirely support their demand,” Kejriwal told reporters after meeting the parliamentarians.
On April 4, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu had met Kejriwal to seek support for the no-confidence motion moved by TDP against the Centre.
They had discussed the special category status for Andhra Pradesh.
Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari on Sunday accused the AAP government of “creating hurdles” in development of civic amenities.
He also warned that he will sit on an indefinite hunger strike if funds are not released for two infrastructure projects in north east Delhi by April 12.
Inaugurating a senior citizens’ recreation centre developed by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation, Tiwari also charged that the Arvind Kejriwal government was indulging in partiality over developments.
“The AAP government is causing hurdles and adopting partial approach over development works. If funds are not released for the Shastri Park loop and Seelampur flyover by April 12, I will sit on an indefinite hunger strike,” a Delhi BJP press statement quoted Tiwari as saying.
He said the people of his parliamentary constituency, north east Delhi, were waiting for these projects for years and he would do everything to fulfill their wish.
“The Shastri Park loop and doubling of the Seelampur flyover will save north east Delhi residents from daily traffic jams,” he said.Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said Tiwari’s decision revealed his “humanitarian” side.
“The Delhi BJP leaders and workers will take a lead and will not allow him to sit alone on the hunger strike and join him in large numbers,” Kapoor said.Incidentally, Tiwari recently underwent a medical procedure for a kidney ailment.
NEW DELHI: In a surprise move, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday visited Tughlak Road police station to meet Telugu Desam Party MPs detained by police while marching towards the official residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The MPs were demanding special category status for Andhra Pradesh.
Kejriwal justified TDP’s demands for special status and put the blame for the detention of the MPs on Modi. “It is very sad that when the MPs went to meet the PM, he got them detained instead of giving them an audience. This is not democracy, it is arrogance. We condemn this,” he said.
The Telugu Desam Party MPs were bundled into a bus by police and CRPF personnel from Race Course Road from where they had started the march and sent to Tughlak Road police station.
During the informal meet, Kejriwal expressed his support to the MPs. “The demand being made by AP government and TDP for special status to the state is completely justified. It should be granted. We support the demand,” he added.
The show of solidarity comes four days after a meeting between Kejriwal and Telugu Desam Party president and AP CM N Chandrababu Naidu in Delhi where the two CMs discussed the prevailing political situation, the demand of AP for special category status, among other issues. Interestingly, the meeting was held after Telugu Desam Party pulled out of BJP-led NDA setting the tone for new political alignments.
With Naidu hitting out at the PM, Kejriwal has found it convenient to cosy up to the Andhra Pradesh chief minister in the middle of the new undercurrents for the union of regional political parties against BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
As Delhi Police detained Telugu Desam Party (TDP) parliamentarians on Sunday protesting near the prime minister’s residence, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal met the MPs at the police station and extended support to their demand for special status for Andhra Pradesh.
Posting several images on Twitter from Tughlak Road Police Station in New Delhi, Kejriwal condemned the MPs’ detention, saying, “I went and met them at the police station in solidarity.”
The decision to protest was taken after party MPs held a meeting at Rajya Sabha member YS Chowdary’s residence on Sunday morning to decide the future course of action. However, all leaders were detained on the way to the prime minister’s residence by the Delhi Police and CRPF.
“The prime minister is the person to take decisions on special category status. He has to fulfil his promises and that is why we want to raise our demands with him,” MP Jaydev Galla said.
On 4 April, Kejriwal had met Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu as part of the latter’s efforts to mobilise support for the no-confidence motion moved by TDP against the Centre. The two leaders also discussed the special category status promised to Andhra Pradesh.
“The Delhi chief minister said he would offer support to the TDP through members from his party in both Houses of the Parliament,” Rajya Sabha MP CM Ramesh had said.
The Andhra Pradesh chief minister, who arrived in New Delhi last week, has met leaders from different political parties to further his cause.
In March, TDP withdrew its ministers from the Union cabinet and walked out of the NDA after the BJP-led Centre denied special category status to Andhra Pradesh. The party had subsequently issued no-confidence motion notices against the government.
However, Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan didn’t introduce it due to continuous disruptions in the Parliament.
Meanwhile, YSR Congress Party leaders continue their indefinite hunger strike here for the third day for the same demand of special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, whose government completes three years in office on Wednesday, is now a quieter person vis-a-vis targeting his bitter political rival — Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Kejriwal, with 13 million followers on Twitter, has not tweeted the word “Modi” even once in the past 11 months. His last tweet mentioning Modi was on 9 March, 2017. In 2016, he had mentioned “Modi” 124 times in his tweets and 33 times in 2017 — mostly attacking the prime minister.
Party leaders and political analysts say the change from tweeting “Modi declares emergency in Delhi”, “dictatorial Modi govt” and “Isn’t Modi govt anti-army” to stopping all mention of Modi’s name follows AAP’s election losses — first in Punjab and Goa and then in Delhi civic polls and a by-election from Rajouri Garden in 2017.
Also, the AAP chief has never tagged Modi in any of his tweets in 2017 and 2018 so far. In 2016, he tagged the Prime Minister eight times.
Kejriwal even refrained from personally attacking the prime minister when tempers between the central government and Delhi government ran high over disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs in January this year. The AAP said its lawmakers were disqualified at the behest of the BJP government at the Centre.
Party leaders and some political analysts IANS spoke with said it was more of a strategy than an accidental quietude.
A senior party leader said the “conscious decision” was taken in a meeting that Kejriwal convened after last year’s debacle in Delhi civic polls in which the AAP emerged a distant second with 48 seats after the BJP swept the polls by winning 181 seats.
It was a big blow for the AAP that swept the Delhi elections in 2015 by winning 67 out of 70 Assembly seats.
“It (attacking Modi) was not taking us anywhere and we decided to rather focus on governance,” the AAP leader said.
Political analyst Neerja Chowdhury agreed that it “was a definite change in (Kejriwal’s) strategy” to stop attacking Modi personally. “It is evident that the AAP has lost the trust of the middle class and they need to win back the trust if they have to keep Delhi.”
Praveen Rai, another political analyst with the Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), said: “We have been seeing a much, much more sober Kejriwal. He is growing as a leader and is becoming a seasoned politician. But he has a long way to go.”
AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj attributed the shift to “a good communication system (that) keeps reinventing itself” and the party follows that idea.
“Initially people wanted to know why works in Delhi were not being done and we had to explain to them in the first two years. Now people understand that LG is not allowing many works and files go through him,” Bharadwaj said. He said the strategy of attacking Modi and the central government “served its purpose” and there was no need to repeat it.
The Aam Aadmi Party has begun scouting candidates for the next Lok Sabha elections, due by 2019, and it is contemplating to field the young Atishi Marlena, Raghav Chadha and Dilip Pandey in the polls, a party leader has said. The three probables are believed to be close to the AAP leadership and have been with the party since its formation on October 2, 2012 following a massive anti-corruption movement.
A senior AAP leader said the 36-year-old Marlena, advisor to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, may contest from the East Delhi constituency, currently held by Maheish Girri of the BJP. Marlena, a member of the AAP’s Political Affairs Committee, is closely associated with the execution of the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation’s programmes to improve the conditions of Delhi government schools. Chadha, 29, may contest from New Delhi constituency, the leader said.
A known face on television debates, Chadha is the youngest spokesperson and was the party’s treasurer. He also liaisons with other political parties on behalf of the AAP leadership. Both Marlena and Chadha played important roles in drafting the party’s manifesto for the 2013 Assembly polls, when AAP made a spectacular debut into electoral politics winning 28 (out of 70) seats in the Delhi Assembly. The party went on to form a minority government with Arvind Kejriwal as Chief Minister on December 28 that year. Pandey, 37, could fight the polls from North East Delhi, a seat currently represented by Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari.
The North East Delhi constituency has a large number of people from Purvanchal region as registered voters. The party expects to tap them by fielding Pandey, who was born in Uttar Pradesh. Pandey, AAP’s Delhi unit convenor, enjoys support among party volunteers. “The party has started looking for candidates for the Lok Sabha polls and names of these three leaders are doing rounds. However, it could be premature to say the party has zeroed on them,” another AAP leader said.
There is a possibility the party may field its MLAs, like it did in 2014. For instance, then social welfare minister in the Delhi government was fielded from the North West seat. Since its inception, the AAP has twice formed government in Delhi. In December 2013, it had formed the minority government. But Kejriwal resigned in February 2014 to seek a fresh mandate, after being 45 days in office when he failed to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill due to a lack of numbers in the Assembly.
The party returned to power in February 2015 with an overwhelming majority, winning 67 of the 70 Assembly seats. That win came after AAP lost all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi to the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Last year, it also lost the municipal corporation polls. The AAP has been trying to strengthen the organisation since the MCD loss and drubbing in a bypoll on Rajouri Garden seat.
NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal continued his apology spree, now saying “sorry” to Union finance minister and BJP leader Arun Jaitley in a defamation case he has filed against him. Jaitley has accepted the apology, reported ANI quoting sources.
Joining Kejriwal in the apology were three of his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) colleagues Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Ashutosh. All four, in a joint letter, apologized to the BJP leader.
“In the civil case, we’ll agree to a decree in the matter based on apology and the acceptance thereof,” said M Dogra, Jaitley’s counsel.
Jaitley had filed a Rs 10-crore defamation suit against Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders — Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh and Deepak Bajpai. All six alleged financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) when Jaitley was its president.
“These allegations made by me were based on information and papers furnished to me by certain individuals who represented to have first-hand insight into the affairs of DDCA. However, I have recently discovered that the information and the imputations contained therein are unfounded and warranted and I was clearly misinformed into making these allegations,” wrote Kejriwal and his colleagues in the apology to Jaitley.
Kejriwal and his colleagues then said they withdraw all allegations against Jaitley.
“I offer my sincere apology to you and your family members for any harm caused to your reputation as a consequence of my allegations,” the AAP leaders’ joint apology further said.
They then asked to “end the unsavoury litigations between us”.
Chandigarh: The AAP in Punjab in the throes of a crisis with its state unit chief and MP Bhagwant Mann resigning in protest against the apology by the AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal to former Punjab minister and Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia, who had filed a defamation case against the Delhi chief minister for charging him of being involved in drug trade.
The new outfit is almost vertically split in the state where it made its Assembly debut by winning 20 seats last March. Punjab is the only state, other than Delhi, where the new outfit has legislators but the latest crisis in the party is threatening to dent its image in the Congress-ruled state.
Mr Kejriwal’s apology to Mr Majithia, which came without consulting the state unit, had caused huge embarrassment to party MLAs and workers in Punjab as it reflected a step down from the earlier stand taken by the AAP on the drugs menace getting political patronage in the state.
Although some of the AAP MLAs went to Delhi for a meeting with Mr Kejriwal on March 18 for understanding the reasons why he went ahead with his apology to the Akali leader, there were others who refused to listen to the AAP convenor’s excuse.
Mr Kejriwal has claimed that he has averted a split within the Punjab unit after explaining his position to the legislators during a meeting with them last week.
But the crisis does not seem to be over completely as some party voices are still pitching for detachment from the Delhi-controlled set up. Others are saying to wait and watch.
MLA from Kotkapura Kultar Singh Sandhwan opened the front against Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly and his party colleague Sukhpal Singh Khaira for what he termed as an attempt to split the party by putting pressure on the legislators and bringing a resolution in a meeting in Chandigarh.
Mr Sandhwan said that the AAP should take action against Mr Khaira who violated the party’s code of discipline by making attempts to create a new outfit. He lashed out at Mr Khaira and other MLAs claiming that they won election in the name of the party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal but were not trying to challenge his authority.
If Mr Khaira wants to create a new party, he must vacate the MLA’s seat and fight elections, said Mr Sandhwan.
“We attended the meeting at New Delhi on March 18 because we wanted to know under what circumstances Mr Kejriwal apologised to Mr Majithia in the defamation case,” said Mr Sandhwan, who went Delhi to attend the party meeting.
The Congress was quick to take a dig at Mr Kejriwal for his apology. Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu described Kejriwal’s apology a “murder of AAP in Punjab”.
“It is a let down to the people of Punjab. I feel Kejriwal has murdered AAP in Punjab. It is as if their existence has been wiped off. With what face will they speak against drugs in Punjab now?” asked the Congress leader.
After 10 MLAs met Mr Kejriwal in Delhi, Mr Khaira backed down and said he was open to meeting the Delhi leadership. However, he has insisted that the meeting should take place in Chandigarh.
“There is no problem in meeting, we are in the same party. There is no ego involved in this. But we would still want that they (Delhi leaders) come down here. We have had several meetings in Delhi and this time it can be here,” he said.
As the controversy continues, some AAP leaders like H.S. Phoolka are trying to find a middle path and trying to avoid a spit in the party.
Mr Phoolka has asked party MLAs in Punjab to seek “autonomy” for the state unit rather than forming a separate outfit in the best interests of the state.
Giving his views for the first time after party Mr Kejriwal’s apology to Mr Majithia on drug allegations, which pushed the state unit into a crisis, the former Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Assembly and Dakha MLA also suggested that the state unit should function like a regional party with total independence on state matters.
With an aim to expand the Aam Admi Party’s foothold outside Delhi, party convener Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said his party will contest the Haryana Assembly elections scheduled to be held in 2019.
With an aim to expand the Aam Admi Party’s foothold outside Delhi, party convener Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said his party will contest the Haryana Assembly elections scheduled to be held in 2019. Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal, who was born in Haryana’s Siwani, also exuded confidence that AAP will go past the historic mandate of 67 out of 70 seats that the party received in Delhi. Kejriwal’s assertion comes just days after the Delhi High Court set aside the disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs in the office-of-profit case and asked the Election Commission to hear the matter afresh.
Kejriwal’s attempts to expand the party’s presence beyond Delhi is not new. Last year too, AAP had tried to expand its footprint and contested the Punjab and Goa Assembly polls. AAP, however, failed miserably in both the states. It had also fielded 33 candidates in the crucial Gujarat Assembly polls but all failed to make a mark. AAP has earlier said that it is likely to fight in the Rajasthan assembly polls to be held in 2018.
Kejriwal lashed out at BJP and Congress at “Haryana Bachao Rally” blaming them for the violence during Jat reservation stir in 2016. “Everybody in Haryana knows that BJP and Congress had got riots triggered between the Jats and non-Jats. Hooda and Khattar, both were together in it…. I want to ask where was Khattar sahab when Haryana was burning?” Kejriwal alleged. Lashing out at BJP, Kejriwal said that the ruling party at the Centre is the number one party in orchestrating riots.
“If you want riots between Hindu-Muslims, give them a contract and they will get it done in two minutes,” Kejriwal alleged.
Speaking of the party’s strategy, Haryana AAP convener Naveen Jaihind said, “We will soon initiate the process to choose candidates for all 90 seats in Haryana. People of the state are fed up with the politics of CBI (Congress, BJP and INLD) whose leaders only promote their family members.”
