Kejriwal demands statehood for Delhi, Puducherry

NEW DELHI:Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today raised the pitch for complete statehood for Delhi and Puducherry while extending support to his counterpart V Narayanasamy in the latter’s ongoing faceoff with Lt Governor Kiran Bedi over administrative jurisdiction issues.

Ananya Panda

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 18

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today raised the pitch for complete statehood for Delhi and Puducherry while extending support to his counterpart V Narayanasamy in the latter’s ongoing faceoff with Lt Governor Kiran Bedi over administrative jurisdiction issues.

Kejriwal, along with Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and party MLA Somnath Bharti, met Congress’ Narayanasamy and two MLAs of ally DMK at their dharna site today and criticised Bedi for “stalling” government proposals and projects. The move reflects the AAP's political pragmatism, coming in the backdrop of its failed understanding with the Congress over a probable pact in Delhi to defeat the incumbent BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.

Kejriwal today accused Bedi, once his chief ministerial opponent representing the BJP, of autocratic functioning — a situation AAP government in Delhi can easily relate due to its frequent run-ins with the LG office since 2015.

Sharing on Twitter about their visit, Kejriwal said “UT status to Delhi and Puducherry is an injustice to their people” and they will fight together for statehood of Delhi and Puducherry.

He said they are there to express solidarity with the people of Puducherry. “@VNarayanasamy is fighting against the dictatorship of Puducherry LG.... We will fight together for full statehood,” Kejriwal tweeted.

Sisodia criticised the Prime Minisater accusing him of rendering the country’s federal structure of governance ineffective. “People elect state governments to look into their affairs. But @PMOIndia tries to make them defunct through LG. This is the only achievement of Modi ji in last 5 years,” he tweeted.

In return, Narayanasamy thanked them for visiting and backing the people of Puducherry in their fight against the “dictatorship and undemocratic functioning of the LG”.