Kejriwal slams Bedi, seeks statehood for Delhi, Puducherry
Chennai: Puducherry chief minister V Narayanasamy, who is on a protest against Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Kiran Bedi, was joined on Monday by a guest protestor, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who knows a thing or two about taking on LGS.
Kejriwal demanded full statehood for both the Union Territories (the only two with assemblies and chief ministers).
He also targeted Bedi, once his ally in an anti-corruption movement, who later took on Kejriwal in local elections as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate only to lose.
“Defeated and rejected by the people of Delhi, Kiran Bedi is ruling Puducherry. She has been appointed by the Centre and is not an elected leader to represent the people,” Kejriwal said, sharing the stage with Narayanasamy in front of the Raj Nivas, the LG’S residence.
Kejriwal is no stranger to sit-in protests of the kind Narayanasamy is in the midst of; the Puducherry chief minister wants Bedi to be recalled and claims she is interfering in the administration as well as preventing developmental work from happening by not clearing files.
Kejriwal, who landed at the venue accompanied by his deputy CM, Manish Sisodia, held aloft a placard which read “Go Back Kiran Bedi”
Like Narayanasamy, the Delhi CM, heading the Aam Aadmi Party Government, has been engaged in a prolonged turf war with Delhi’s L-G.
In a recent ruling, the Supreme Court gave the Centre (through the L-G) control over the anti corruption bureau and setting up
committee’s of inquiry, but referred a decision on who could transfer bureaucrats to a larger bench.
Earlier on Sunday, the AAP put out a tweet saying, “Be it Delhi or Puducherry, tyranny of unelected over elected is unacceptable in a democracy. Our stand won’t change from state to state.”
Addressing the media along with Narayanasamy, Kejriwal said, “I have come here to express my solidarity with Chief Minister Narayanasamy. The L-G is no substitute for an elected government that enjoys the people’s mandate. There is no reason why people of the two regions should be discriminated against.”