Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena (left) with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal
| Photo Credit: File Photo
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Responding to a string of letters by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena on Monday wrote to the CM on Monday inviting him for a meeting “in the interest of a conflict-free governance of the city”.
“I would like to express my appreciation for the fact that you have started taking governance of the city seriously and getting into the intricacies of constitutional provisions, Statutes and Acts that outline the multi-layered scheme of administration in the National Capital Territory of Delhi,” Mr. Saxena wrote in his letter.
The exchange of letters comes in the wake of recent letters by the CM to the L-G questioning his decisions, including the latter’s nomination of 10 aldermen to the municipality, which Mr. Kejriwal described as a “fraud on the Constitution”.
The L-G said that the CM used to meet him regularly till October 2022, after which he stopped attending the meetings citing his “preoccupation with [the] Assembly and municipal elections”. Now that the polls are over, Mr. Saxena added, the two could meet “in the interest of the people”.
Responding to the L-G, Mr. Kejriwal said, “AAP is a national party and as its national convener, I have to attend election campaigns in different parts of the country.”
The CM took the opportunity to again question the L-G’s authority to nominate the aldermen and the presiding officer for the newly elected MCD’s first House meeting, and constitute the Haj Committee, “bypassing the elected government”. He challenged the L-G to publicly state his stand on these issues.
