New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said he was confident the Supreme Court will overturn a high court ruling giving primacy to the Lt. Governor in administrative affairs.
“We are confident we will get relief from the Supreme Court,” the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader told India Today channel, referring to the Delhi High Court verdict of August 4.
The high court had ruled that Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, an appointee of the central government, would by law be the chief administrator in Delhi, not the elected government of Kejriwal.
Referring to that controversial ruling, Kejriwal said any interpretation of the Constitution that vested all powers in one person would pose “a huge danger to the country”.
In an hour-long interview, Kejriwal spoke on a variety of subjects including the upcoming Punjab and Goa elections and his own relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Kejriwal expressed confidence of an AAP sweep in the Punjab assembly polls, insisting that his party would win more than 100 of the 117 seats. “Mark my words, we will get more than 100 seats.”
He brushed aside Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal’s claims that the AAP would end up with single digit in the house.
“Sukhbir Badal is on his way out. Let him say anything,” he said, adding that the people of Punjab were waiting to oust the Akali Dal-BJP alliance and saw the AAP as a better option than the Congress.
The Punjab election “is a dharam yudh” (holy war), he said, likening it to the battle between Kauravas and Pandavas in the Mahabharata.
Kejriwal refused to say who would be the Chief Minister of Punjab if AAP wins. To repeated questions, he kept saying: “People will decide the CM.”
Asked if he would shift to Punjab, he said: “I am happy as the Delhi CM.”
Kejriwal again accused the central government of “betraying” the army over the One Rank One Pension scheme over which ex-serviceman Ram Kishan Grewal committed suicide here on Tuesday.
“We won’t let Grewal’s death go waste,” he said.
The AAP leader also responded to charges that he kept “fighting” with Modi.
He said he was forced to repeatedly take on the central government because it kept putting roadblocks in his work.
He said he had to fight to slash power rates and provide limited free water, to set up Mohalla Clinics and to even improve the public transport in Delhi.
“Now the LG says Mohalla Clinics can’t be set up. We will fight that.”
Kejriwal also said the AAP had stopped naming on its web site people who donated money to it because such people were harassed by central government agencies.
He said the central government was planning to come up with fresh allegations against AAP over public donations by obfuscating the issue. “These charges will be given out to select TV channels.”
–IANS