While the Supreme Court’s hearing on the Government formation in the national Capital is scheduled for Friday, the Delhi BJP seems to have almost made up its mind for fresh elections. In a recently review meeting of the Delhi unit, majority of leaders were against the Government formation without having a clear majority.
Presided over by Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay, the meeting had most of the senior leaders voicing the opinion that the “Modi wave” was still “strong” and that going for elections was a more “sensible” option. “The mood within the ranks of the Delhi BJP is that of re-elections. Most of the leaders believed that forming a Government by managing the numbers may affect the image of the party and more importantly that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said Delhi BJP vice-president Ashish Sood. The final decision on the issue, however, will be taken by the Central leadership, he added.
The Supreme Court on September 9 had asked the Centre to apprise it on October 10 of the outcome of the process undertaken by lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung on Government formation in Delhi, saying “alleged horse-trading” will continue if a decision is not taken. On September 4, Jung had sent a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee seeking permission to call BJP, the single largest party, to take a shot at power though it is well short of majority in the Assembly. Asked what the party would do if the l-G invites BJP to form Government, the senior leader said the party might turn down the offer.
“We do not have the numbers to form the Government. The chances of the l-G inviting us to form Government are very less,” said another senior leader. Following l-G’s initiative, almost all BJP MlAs as well as Upadhyay had indicated the party’s willingness to take a shot at power. The dominant view in BJP then was that it will not be immoral on its part to take up the reins as the party had swept the lok Sabha polls by winning all the seven seats with comfortable margins.
The BJP, along with its ally Akali Dal’s one MlA, has 29 MlAs in the Assembly and will require support of five more legislators to prove majority in the House.
The BJP had won 31 seats in the 70-member Assembly but the number of BJP MlAs came down to 28 as three party legislators Harsh Vardhan, Ramesh Bidhuri and Pervesh Verma had resigned from the Assembly after they were elected to lok Sabha. Following resignation of the three legislators, the strength of the Assembly had come down to 67.