The residence allotted to former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Public Works Division (PWD) has been on the centre of a political battle between the Aam Aadmi Celebration on one facet and the BJP and workplace of the Lieutenant-Governor on the opposite. Now, by seemingly circumventing process after which crying foul, CM Atishi and the AAP have scored a spectacular personal purpose at a time when the occasion is very embattled. It has carried out poorly in Kejriwal’s house state of Haryana; and it could possibly ill-afford missteps forward of the Delhi meeting elections early subsequent yr. Given the swirl of allegations of indiscriminate spending across the CM residence, a celebration that has constructed its politics on the anti-corruption plank ought to have made efforts to stanch this controversy on the earliest.
The Delhi CM doesn’t have a chosen residence. Going by process, outgoing CM Kejriwal was anticipated to relinquish the Civil Strains bungalow allotted to him and new CM Atishi would then be allotted an official house by the PWD. As an alternative, she moved into the home vacated by her predecessor. Two days after she moved into the home, she was compelled to vacate it. This has given the BJP extra fodder to assault the AAP. Since final yr, the residence has sparked controversy, with each Congress and BJP alleging irregularities in its renovation, a matter being probed by the Vigilance Division and the CBI. That Opposition leaders are being selectively focused and investigative companies weaponised in opposition to their leaders by the Centre is an allegation that has been made by non-BJP a number of events. Lots of AAP’s senior leaders had been arrested and spent months in jail — together with Kejriwal and former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia — on corruption prices. This, if nothing else, ought to have made AAP much more cautious about following the principles in letter and spirit.
The AAP has been in workplace in Delhi for practically a decade. For a lot of that point, it has been at loggerheads with the L-G’s workplace over the latter’s interference within the functioning of Delhi’s elected authorities. This has taken a toll on the much-touted Delhi mannequin of governance, specializing in the welfare wants of the center class and the poor. However theatrics like Atishi not occupying the CM’s chair, at the same time as Kejriwal goes to the folks as a part of his “agni-pariksha”, have additionally made the occasion look like an immature one-man-show. With its complicity in making a mountain out of a mansion, it’ll solely seem extra like a celebration fumbling for a script.
