After meeting Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday morning and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Harshvardhan on Thursday night, and finding that neither of them is interested in forming the government given the split electoral vote, Delhi Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung has decided to forward his report on these two meetings to President Pranab Mukherjee.
According to a television channel report, Lt. Governor Jung's report may contain recommendation of next steps for government formation in the state of Delhi.
Earlier in the day, Kejriwal met Lt.Governor Najeeb Jung and discussed the possibility of government formation in Delhi.
After the meeting, Kejriwal said, "Our stand is clear we will take no support nor will provide any support. We have written letters to Rajnath Singh and Sonia Gandhi, asking their stand on the important issues. The government in Delhi will be issue- based."
Listing his conditions, he said, "After their response on these issues comes in, we will hold meeting with the public and whatever their decision is, we will accept it. Whether the public wants a re-election or should we form government with support of the BJP and the Congress. This is what we have told the Lieutenant Governor."
"No support is unconditional. Why are they suddenly offering support to our party. Congress is offering unconditional support and the BJP is offering constructive support. We will ponder upon it, once they reply to our letters," he added.
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"There is no time limit on this and the governor asked us to write whenever we are ready," he said.
Late on Friday evening, the Congress, had in a letter written to Lt. Gov. Jung, offered outside and unconditional support for the AAP to form the next government.
The letter was signed by Delhi Congress President J.P. Agarwal and Party General Secretary in charge of Delhi Shakeel Ahmed.
On Thursday night, Harshvardhan rejected Lt.Governor Jung"s offer to form the next government in Delhi, in view of the fact that his party, with 32 seats, was the single largest.
Addressing media here, Harshvardhan said he was honoured to have been invited by Jung for a meeting to discuss the possibility of the BJP accepting the offer to form the next government in the national capital.
However, he said, that he had handed over a letter to Lt. Governor Jung in which he and the BJP have clearly stated that since they had not acquired a majority in the recently-held assembly polls, they could not accept the offer to form the next government in the state.
"I thank the people of Delhi for showing their vote of confidence in the BJP and its ally- the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). But the fact is, that we got only 32 seats. All of us know that 36 seats were needed for a majority to form the next government in Delhi. we fell four seats short," said Harshvardhan.
"Since we do not have a majority, I have informed the Lt. Governor that the BJP is not in a position to form the government. We are ready to sit in the opposition and will continue to serve the people of Delhi. We are determined to provide good governance, good administration and service to the people,"Harshvardhan said further.
"As you all know, if we had accepted the offer to form the government, we would have had to prove our majority in the House within seven days. That is the rule. Since we did not get a clear majority, we have no other option but to reject the Lt. Governor's offer. The BJP is not a party that believes in horse trading to get the required number of seats for a majority," he said then.
He also said that BJP would be a contributing and positive opposition to whichever party decides to form the government in Delhi, but added that whoever did so, has the onerous task of establishing its majority on the floor of the House.
