Jung meets PM, says he wanted to quit earlier

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung on Friday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is believed to have given a go ahead to his decision to quit while on two earlier occasions he had persuaded him against the step.

A day after quitting, Jung set aside his bitter differences with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and called him for a breakfast. Kejriwal went to Raj Niwas and the two had a cordial meeting when they even recalled the differences, fights and light moments in their ties in the last two years.

The Lt Governor later called on Modi. Again there was no official word on what transpired in the meeting.

Sources close to Jung said he had offered to quit twice before including in 2014 after the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power as he was a United Progressive Alliance appointee, but was asked to continue by the prime minister.

They said Jung repeated his desire to demit office to Modi few days ago and that this time the prime minister did not stop him, adding his decision to quit was purely on personal ground and would pen a book on his tumultuous tenure.

After the hour-long meeting with Jung, Kejriwal too said it was his personal decision to resign.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also met Jung, said, “We had a very good chat. He shared memories of the last two years and also of his days as a bureaucrat. He said that he was mulling quitting over the last one year.

“He wants to spend time with his family and focus on academics. He said that he could not quit due to things like chikungunya (outbreak in the city).”

Even as the circumstances leading to Jung’s sudden decision to quit kept political circles abuzz with several theories, there was indication that he was finding it difficult to handle the fractured relationship with the Aam Aadmi Party government.

On who could be next L-G of Delhi, Sisodia said many names are doing the rounds but nothing official has come up.

The names of former Home Secretaries Anil Baijal, G K Pillai, former Delhi Chief Secretaries D M Spolia, Omesh Saigal, ex-Police Commissioners Kiran Bedi, B S Bassi and Ajay Raj Sharma are doing the rounds as Jung’s successor.

Meanwhile, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken, who had termed Jung’s exit as ‘unceremonious’, on Friday said the AAP and the BJP had joined hands to prevent the release of the Shunglu committee report on decisions taken by the Kejriwal government before the August 4 Delhi high court verdict.

“Jung was to make public the Shunglu Committee report on Monday, that’s why he had to resign. The report has exposed irregularities in around 200 files of the Delhi government,” he told reporters.