AAP changes tack, no more ‘fights’ with L-G in Delhi

Party will focus on highlighting positive work in Capital, expansion in other States

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi seems to have chosen to not go down the confrontation path with confrontation path with Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. Instead, the approach will be to keep the focus on highlighting the government’s achievements in the welfare and educations sectors. 

The decision  to not get into daily fights with the Central government-appointed  L-G is based on the need to reconfigure its relationship with him, and how they want the people of Delhi to perceive AAP, party leaders told  The Hindu. 

The latest flashpoint between the two is the L-G’s permission for a CBI probe into Delhi’s excise policy, putting senior AAP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who heads the Excise Department, in the line of direct fire. Mr. Saxena also denied permission to the Chief Minister to attend a global summit in Singapore. 

The possibility of Mr. Sisodia facing prosecution  has also prompted the party to start pushing the narrative of “education revolution”, a party leader said.

“The L-G wants us to fight with him, like we did between 2015 and 2018. But it had a negative impact on us and we realised it was a mistake. They want us to react like that and fall into their trap, but we won’t,” an AAP leader told The Hindu. 

Confirming this, another party leader said the decision to not openly go for a war with the L-G was taken by the “top leadership”.

The change could be noticed in Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s statement too. Soon after his first meeting with the L-G after the probe into the new excise policy was announced, Mr. Kejriwal declared that there was “no fallout” between the two.