AAP passes fresh statehood resolution in Delhi assembly
NEWDELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in next year’s parliamentary elections if it ensured Delhi got statehood, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Monday, just before the assembly passed a resolution on an issue that has been a political hot potato for decades.
“I want to tell the BJP that if, before the 2019 elections, Delhi is granted statehood, we will make sure that each and every vote from Delhi goes in your favour. We will campaign for you. If you do not do it, then Delhi residents will put up boards saying ‘BJP leave Delhi’,” Kejriwal said, taking a jab at the Bjp-led central government.
As a union territory, the capital’s administration is largely controlled by the Union government – a system that has often brought the state government and the Centre into conflict, particularly because the Delhi Police and land-related matters are not under the state’s purview.
On Monday too, Kejriwal accused Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and central investigating agencies of stalling his government’s functioning and staged a sit-in at the L-G’S resi- dence till the time of going to print. The resolution urges the Union ministry of home affairs to table a Bill in Parliament to grant Delhi full statehood.
This is not the first time the Delhi assembly has passed a resolution. In 1988, when Sahib Singh Verma was the chief minister.