On Monday morning, Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung met State BJP leaders and was reportedly informed by the party that it would not form the Government and would prefer fresh elections instead . However, no official statement has yet been given by the party.
Jung is slated to meet leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress later in the day in a bid to end the deadlock over elections in the State, which has been under President’s Rule since February this year.
Last week, Jung wrote to all the parties after the Supreme Court set a deadline of November 11. "In a democracy, President's Rule cannot go on forever. The Lieutenant Governor should have taken a decision on government formation at the earliest instead of waiting for months", the apex court had said.
According to television reports quoting sources close to the BJP, State leaders Satish Upadhyay and Jagdish Mukhi met Jung and conveyed to him that his party would prefer fresh elections. Reports said both the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party national president Amit Shah were in favour of fresh polls.
In the 70-member Assembly, BJP now has 29 seats (three of its MLAs are now Lok Sabha MPs), AAP has 27, Congress has eight, Janata Dal (United) has one and the rest are Independents.
AAP, which quit the Government after 49 days in February on the issue of the Jan Lokpal Bill, made a failed bid to form a Government once again, reportedly with Congress support. The party is now making a strong pitch for fresh elections.
In the afternoon, former Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal had tweeted: “LG should first "formally" invite BJP(largest party), seek their "formal" stand, make it public, then invite next party, the way he did in Dec.”