New Delhi : Bowing to ‘public pressure”, the Aam Aadmi Party is all set to form the government in Delhi with the outside support of the Congress party.
A formal decision to this effect would be announced on Monday. The party’s leader, Arvind Kejriwal, has accepted the fact that they are under public pressure to form the government. The party had sent out 25 lakh letters to Delhiites to seek their opinion on the question of forming the government with the outside support of the Congress. It had also conducted an online opinion poll on its website. The overwhelming opinion has been in favour of forming the government.
But the party, which had set Monday as the deadline for taking a decision, is also expected to hold public rallies over the weekend to gauge the people’s mood. So, a final decision would be announced only as per the original schedule.
Making its electoral debut, the AAP had secured 28 out of the 70 seats in the Delhi State assembly and emerged as the second largest party behind BJP, which had got 31. The BJP got the first shot at government formation, but declined the invite. Before AAP got the invite, the Congress, which has been reduced from 43 seats in the outgoing assembly to 8, offered unconditional outside support.
However, AAP set stiff terms for the Congress and listed 18 conditions for accepting support. The Congress lobbed the ball back into AAP’s court by responding that 16 of the 18 terms did not require any legislative role, and it was with the AAP on the remaining two.
After this, AAP decided to have a fresh opinion poll on government formation. Meanwhile, the newly appointed president of the Delhi unit of the Congress, Arvinder Singh, made it clear that the party’s support is for the AAP manifesto and not for the party.
Anil Sharma
