New Delhi: It's D-Day for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as he faces the vote of confidence in the Assembly on Thursday which the Aam Aadmi Party government is likely to sail through with the support of eight Congress MLAs and the lone Janata Dal United legislator.
The Delhi Assembly on Wednesday completed the formality of oath taking by the members including the Chief Minister and other ministers with senior Congress member Matin Ahmed functioning as pro-tem Speaker.
Ahead of confidence motion, the Congress made it clear that it will continue its support to the AAP government and there was no question of reviewing the decision. "We had decided to support the AAP government from outside and we are not reviewing it. We stand by our decision. There is no threat to the government from our side," Delhi Pradesh Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely said.
AAP which had a spectacular debut in the recently concluded Assembly elections winning 28 seats in the 70-member House and formed the government on December 23 with the outside support of the Congress which won eight seats.
Even the support of the Congress was mired in controversies. The party which agreed to give unconditional support to the AAP later backtracked saying it's support is not an unconditional one, and it is just an outside support.
"We have only said we will support from outside. We meant we will not be a part of the government. We never said the support is unconditional." Congress Delhi in-charge Shakeel Ahmed had said.
Even former chief minister Sheila Dikshit had cleared that it's not an unconditional support.
As far as government formation was concerned, Delhi witnessed BJP, the single largest party with 31 MLAs and its ally Shiromani Akali Dal's one MLA, refusing to stake claim and instead asking AAP bite the bullet. BJP Delhi in-charge Nitin Gadkari had said, "We won't indulge in horse-trading. We won't buy or purchase any MLAs."
As if it was not enough, the BJP leader also refused to take up the post of pro-tem Speaker of the House.
The senior most MLA Jagdish Mukhi of the BJP on Monday night refused the post of pro-tem Speaker. "Our party has decided that no BJP MLA will accept this post in present circumstances," Mukhi said.
While the AAP has chosen MS Dhir as its candidate for the Speaker's post, the BJP also appears all set to contest.
Even though the AAP formed many hurdles in forming the government, it fulfiled two of its promises after coming to power within 48 hours. On Monday, AAP gave 20,000 litres free water to all households having meters. On Tuesday, AAP announced 50 per cent cut in power tariff for those consuming up to 400 units.
Kejriwal may be in a hurry but Delhiites received the New Year gifts which many feel was not a viable decision.
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