The Delhi Assembly on Monday accepted the resolution demanding full statehood for the national Capital, ANI reported.
“I want to tell the Bharatiya Janata Party that if before the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, Delhi is granted statehood, we will make sure that each and every vote from Delhi goes in your favour, we will campaign for you,” Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in the Assembly. “If you don’t do so, Delhi residents will put up boards saying ‘BJP leave Delhi’.”
This comes a day after Kejriwal announced he will launch a city-wide campaign on June 17 seeking statehood for Delhi. Likening the demand to the Independence struggle, Kejriwal said his Aam Aadmi Party would run a “LG, Delhi Chhodo” – or “lieutenant governor, quit Delhi” – campaign.
“If we want to open colleges, they [lieutenant governors] do not allow. It is not the issue of just development... Our ancestors had also fought for freedom of the country,” Kejriwal said on Sunday. “Delhi gives Rs 1.3 lakh crore tax to the Centre, but we get nothing in lieu of this. Every person in Delhi will get a good job and every family will get its own house if Delhi is given full statehood.”
The AAP government has been in a battle with the lieutenant governor since the Delhi High Court ruled in 2016 that the LG was the administrative head. The Arvind Kejriwal-led government had moved the High Court after the Union Home Ministry gave “unprecedented powers” on matters such as public order, police and services to former Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung.
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