The national council of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Saturday unanimously decided to extend the terms of all of its office-bearers, including party convener Arvind Kejriwal, by a year.
Talking to reporters after a meeting of the AAP national council, party leader Pankaj Gupta said a proposal to extend the term of the current council by a year in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha election and the Delhi Assembly polls was passed unanimously.
"The extension of the national council's term means that the terms of the national executive and convener Arvind Kejriwal are also extended by a year," he said.
The term of the national council was to end on April 23, 2019, Gupta said.
"In the coming days, there will be the (2019) Lok Sabha election and after a few months, the Delhi Assembly polls. In view of this, we have decided that the term of the national council will be extended by a year.
"The proposal was passed unanimously," he told reporters. Asked whether the term of Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal as the party's national convener was also extended, AAP leader Gopal Rai said the terms of all the national council members were extended.
Kejriwal was elected as the national convenor of the AAP for the second time in April, 2016 for a period of three years.
According to the party constitution, "No member will hold the same post as an office-bearer for more than two consecutive terms of three years each."
Meanwhile, accusing the Central government of scanning over 400 files related to the Delhi government, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to show four files of the Centre, including those of Sahara-Birla and Rafale.
Addressing the meeting, Kejriwal also said through repeated examinations and scanning, Modi gave the AAP government in Delhi a certificate of honesty. "The Centre took and examined our 400 files to find irregularities, but could not find any. Modi himself gave us a certificate of honesty. I always say if PM Modi shows us four of his files, he will end up landing in jail," Kejriwal said.
"You took our 400 files, show us Sahara-Birla and Rafale files and we can send you to jail with just these two files," he challenged Modi.
He said that the BJP in the past four years has not left any stone unturned to ensure that the AAP government could not perform.
"I don't see anywhere in the country or in the world that a Chief Minister elected by the people could not even transfer a peon working under him. The Centre holds the power to transfer the officers but we have been asked to make them work. The public has voted for us, but powers are with the Centre."
He said that the Central government posted the worst officers in the education and health departments, soon after the two departments started doing good work.
"But Manish (Sisodia) and Satyendar (Jain) ensured that these officers worked. Only we know how we handled the dictatorship of the Centre. They also used all possible agencies against us including the police and CBI to humiliate us," Kejriwal said, adding that the Centre also used the Income Tax department and the ED against them.
Kejriwal, in his speech, mentioned Anna Hazare and said he is following Anna's lessons he also said there is pro-incumbency in favour of the AAP-led government because of the work it has done in the last three years. The AAP government's tenure in Delhi shows that a good government at the Centre can make India number one country in the world, Kejriwal asserted.