Arvind Kejriwal versus Najeeb Jung now becomes Arun Jaitley versus AAP

NEW DELHI: What was till now only a matter of dispute between the Delhi Chief Minister and Lieutenant Governer over administrative issues, took a full political hue on Tuesday following critical comments by senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley.

Hours after Arun Jaitley said Delhi citizen’s “experiment” of electing the Aam Aadmi Party has turned out to be “costly”, the latter has reacted by saying that the statements expose the former’s “deep frustration and anti-democratic stance”.

Speaking to party workers in the national capital, Jaitley reportedly claimed, “Governance is not AAP’s political agenda. Delhi could have been turned into a global city, it is not difficult to govern as it doesn’t face the kind of challenges other states do--like Chattisgarh and Jammu and Kashmir”.

Reacting sharply to these comments, AAP expressed shock that a cabinet minister had “chosen to mock the will of the residents of the national capital.”

Harking back to the election results, the AAP claimed, “The historic election results in February have made the BJP and Congress irrelevant in the electoral politics of national capital are reverberating in the words of political leaders like Mr Jaitley.”

Pointing to the ongoing tussle between the centre and Delhi government over bureaucrat’s appointment, Jaitley had told the party workers, "AAP has such a huge mandate, they must understand their responsibility and that people want governance, not controversies and disputes. But if they can't, then it is also our responsibility to make them understand."

Taking umbrage to this, the AAP statement claimed the centre had been consciously targeting the Delhi government.

“Ever since Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party came to power in Delhi, the BJP led regime at the Centre has been looking at ways and means to belittle the February election results in Delhi by using different offices including that of the Lt Governor to interfere with the working of the state government,” it claimed.

In the absence of full statehood, Delhi’s law and order are controlled by the BJP-led Central government. Kejriwal has vowed to get full statehood for Delhi so that its elected government can have control over every aspect of governing the capital.