Amid a power tussle between Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena and the AAP dispensation, the AAP has claimed that Lt Governor’s office has refused to give “timely appointment" to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for a meeting saying that he is “very busy and cannot meet before Friday.
Sources said that the L-G had on Monday invited Kejriwal for a discussion over existing conflict over governance powers. “The CM had immediately written back accepting the invite and sought an appointment on Tuesday. However, a timely appointment was refused and Lt Governor’s office stated that the L-G does not have time to meet the CM before Friday 4 PM," sources said.
The Lt Governor had written to Kejriwal on Monday inviting him for a meeting to discuss governance-related issues, amid differences between the two sides.
Kejriwal had accepted the invitation in a letter to Saxena, saying "I will fix up a convenient time with your office." In the letter, Kejriwal stated that in the beginning of the L-G letter, he have sarcastically mentioned “….you have started taking governance in the city seriously…” after my election campaigns. AAP is a national party and as its national convenor, I have to attend to elections campaigns in different parts of the country.
Comparing the campaign of AAP, Delhi CM said that the Prime Minister, Home Minister and many BJP Chief Ministers like Yogi Adityanath, Shivraj Singh, Pushkar Dhami etc were also campaigning for their party at that time in Gujarat and Delhi.
The LG’s office and the AAP government in Delhi have often found themselves at loggerheads over various issues, including the now-scrapped excise policy. Kejriwal had earlier questioned the LG over the appointments of the presiding officer and aldermen of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and Haj Committee members by him, saying if his role as the "administrator" of Delhi meant "bypassing" the elected government.