With an overwhelming majority giving thumbs-up to the Aam Aadmi Party, its leader Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday appeared convinced of forming a Government and said he would not let down the people of Delhi. The possibility of Government formation was even more evident after Kejriwal said that he would announce a ‘major’ decision on Monday morning and proceed to meet the lieutenant-Governor around noon. After a series of public meetings seeking public opinion, Kejriwal said his party would go through the public response on Sunday night and the final decision will be announced on Monday.
In what would be a landmark day for the AAP, the party has called for an early morning meeting on Monday which would be attended by members of its political affairs committee. Earlier, the meeting was scheduled for Sunday evening which got postponed as the “referendum” process continued throughout the day. “The meeting will happen on Monday now, as we have not yet received results from all wards. Till now we have received results of over 135 public meetings,” said AAP spokesperson Aswathi Murlidharan. Unconfirmed reports claimed that Manish Sisodia would be anointed as CM by the party. However, Sisodia rejected the reports as a rumour.
Once the meeting is over and a decision taken, Kejriwal along with other top leaders of the AAP will announce their final verdict on Government formation at 11 am. At 12.30 pm, they will meet l-G Najeeb Jung and apprise him of their decision. Besides, the party conveners ensured to make it clear to the people on the AAP’s promise of passing the ‘lokpal Bill’ in Delhi. “Government formation has taken longer than we expected. Hence, we would want to make it clear that the passing of the lokpal Bill will be delayed by a week. But we will pass it for sure,” he said. Party workers throughout the weekend were busy tabulating and analysing results of the week-long “referendum”, which was carried out through SMS, IVRS, letters, emails and public meetings conducted since Thursday evening. The infant party, until Sunday evening, received support from 6.5 lakh people through text messages, IVRS, Facebook and the party’s website.
Expressing his happiness over the overwhelming response, Kejriwal said, “There are around 1.19 crore voters and we have received around 10-12 lakh responses.
Out of the total responses we received, 80 per cent have shown the green signal.” The party which made a stunning debut in the December 4 polls by pocketing 28 seats in 70-member Delhi Assembly will form the Government with outside support from the Congress. Meanwhile, Sunday came as a stunner for the people of Delhi as it was not just the candidates of the AAP who held Jan Sabhas, but also Kejriwal, who is all set to swear in as Chief Minister of Delhi and is also the MlA from the posh and politically significant New Delhi constituency.
Addressing huge crowds at the gatherings, Kejriwal said unlike other parties, his party wants participation of the public on important issues so as to make sense of democracy. “Other political parties have forgotten the real meaning of democracy and they feel the role of common man ends with the casting of their votes. Forming a Government is a very big issue. Hence, referendum on this was important. We had divergent views within our party, so we decided it would be best to leave it to the people,” he said. A civil servant-turned-activist-turned-politician, Kejriwal held four public meetings in his constituency on Sunday. It was not a surprise to see that at all the places majority of people gave him their go-ahead to form the Government. He informed the people that out of 128 public meetings held, people at 110 places said ‘yes’ to formation of Government with the support from Congress while at only 18 places they said ‘no’. On Saturday, two such meeting held in Wazirpur by its candidate Praveen Kumar Bheem.
Although the party will have to bank on the Congress for its eight candidates to form the Government in the Capital, Kejriwal did not hesitate to express that he personally has a strong dislike for the party. “We would continue to call the corrupt as corrupt. If we form the Government, I am not afraid whether the Congress continues support or withdraws it. let them do that, then there will be fresh elections and then common man will teach them a lesson.” Quashing doubts of critics on whether he and the party would be able to live up to its manifesto, Kejriwal said the party would fulfill the promises. “We will perform and we will show our critics. Certain things in the manifesto would be implemented within hours of forming the Government,” he said.