The showdown between Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung reached Rashtrapati Bhavan as both of them met President Pranab Mukherjee separately on Tuesday and briefed him about the stand-off over the appointment of top bureaucrats. Jung, who was the first to meet the President, later also called on Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to tell his side of the story.
Hours before Kejriwal met the President, Jung, in a sudden turn of events, called on Mukherjee and apprised him of the ongoing tussle over the appointments of key bureaucrats in the Delhi Government, with sources maintaining that it was a “constitutional crisis-like situation in Delhi”.
The l-G has been maintaining that he has the power to appoint and transfer the bureaucrats and none of his actions have been “unconstitutional” as was being alleged by the AAP.
In the evening, Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia met the President. “We told President that the l-G is acting as if there is President’s Rule in Delhi. He is directing officers directly. In the last one week, he has done that at least four times, bypassing the CM and his Council of Ministers,” Sisodia told the reporters, adding that they requested the President to restrain the l-G.