Amid tussle, Kejriwal to attend weekly meeting with Delhi LG after gap of weeks

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will attend his weekly Friday meeting with LG V K Saxena at 4 pm after a gap of several weeks, officials said.

Sources said the chief minister will carry copies of Constitution and other laws for his meeting with the L-G at Raj Niwas, which is likely to see a serious discussion between the two over their powers and jurisdictions in Delhi.

The two sides have been locked in a power tussle for quite some time.

On Friday morning, Kejriwal, while referring to a newspaper article on the role of governors, said, "Let elected governments function. Obstructing elected governments from doing their job for petty partisan gains is bad for the people, democracy and Constitution."

On January 9, L-G Saxena through a letter invited Kejriwal for a meeting to discuss the provisions of governing administration in Delhi. He had also suggested the chief minister have regular meetings with him for "conflict-free" governance of the national capital in the interest of its residents.

The L-G had also said the chief minister used to meet him regularly till October 2022 but later he expressed his inability to do so due to his preoccupation with Delhi municipal polls and elections in different states.

The LG's office and the AAP government in Delhi have often found themselves at loggerheads over various issues.

Kejriwal, in his recent letters to Saxena, questioned the nomination of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's presiding officer and aldermen as well as members of the Haj committee, asking if the L-G as "administrator" meant ignoring the elected government in Delhi.