A day after posting a thumping victory in the Assembly election, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal met Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Wednesday.
Later today, he will hold a meeting with the newly-elected party MLAs at his residence.
In Delhi, which is a state with an Assembly, the President appoints the Chief Minister on the advice of the Lieutenant Governor. The party with the majority meets the LG to give a proposal to form the government.
Meanwhile, Arvind Kejriwal will take oath as the Chief Minister of Delhi on February 16, at Ramlila Maidan in a grand ceremony that will be open to the public, senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia has said.
All cabinet ministers will also take oath along with Kejriwal at the event, he said.
दिल्ली के बेटे @ArvindKejriwal जी और उनके नेतृत्व में नई सरकार 16 फ़रवरी को रामलीला मैदान में मुख्यमंत्री पद की शपथ लेगी.
मेरी आप सबसे अपील है कि अपने बेटे को आशीर्वाद देने और उनका हौसला बढ़ाने के लिए आप भी 10 बजे से वहाँ ज़रूर पहुँचे. : @msisodia pic.twitter.com/iaLtxv2WfR
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) February 12, 2020
Sisodia also expressed concern about the attack on party MLA Naresh Yadav’s convoy on Tuesday night, and said, “People responsible for maintaining law and order in Delhi should take action.”
Meanwhile, Arvind Kejriwal was elected as the leader of the AAP legislature party in the Assembly by the MLAs today. He was elected unopposed during a meeting at his residence with all the 62 MLAs.
Senior party leader Manish Sisodia, also the MLA elect from Patparganj, proposed to make Kejriwal the leader of the legislative party. Along with the MLAs, election in-charge Sanjay Singh and campaign in-charge Pankaj Gupta were also in the meeting.
Kejriwal on Tuesday became the Chief Minister-elect for the third time as the AAP bagged 62 of 70 seats — far more than the majority mark but five less than in 2015.
The opposition BJP got eight seats — up from three in 2015, while the Congress remained at zero.
The victory of the AAP ensured a hat-trick for its national convener Arvind Kejriwal in the office of Delhi Chief Minister. All the Kejriwal government ministers retained their seats with a decent margin, though Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia saw a see-saw battle before he was declared winner from his Patparganj seat in east Delhi.
Kejriwal is the second person after Congress leader Sheila Dikshit to become the Chief Minister of the city for the third time.
The vote share of AAP also declined from 54.34 per cent in 2015 to 53.6 per cent, while the BJP’s vote share has increased from 32.19 per cent in 2015 to 38.5 per cent.
The vote share of the Congress dropped to 4.26 per cent this time from 2015’s 9.65 per cent. Also, the voter turnout of the city was about five per cent less from that in 2015.
In the 2013 Assembly polls, while the Congress had secured a vote share of 24.55 per cent, the BJP had secured 33.07 per cent vote share and the AAP, which was contesting for the first time, had secured 29.49 per cent.
The AAP and the Congress joined hands to form Arvind Kejriwal’s 49-day government.
The Aam Aadmi Party had changed the political picture of Delhi since its formation in 2012. While the assembly polls before 2012 were between the Congress and the BJP, the assembly elections since 2013 had been all about AAP in Delhi.
The BJP got its highest vote share in the first-ever Delhi Assembly polls in 1993 — 42.82 per cent votes — and had formed a government. The vote share of Congress was 34.48 per cent during that time.
Later, between 1998 and 2008, Congress was elected having more than 40 per cent vote share. While the BJP’s vote share in 1998, 2003 and 2008 was 34.02 per cent, 35.22 per cent and 36.33 per cent, that of Congress was 47.76 per cent, 48.13 per cent and 40.30 per cent respectively.