Delhi govt braces for heated assembly session

BJP said it will push for discussions on death of 50 people due to waterlogging and electric shocks, pending CAG reports that have not been tabled, lack of ration cards for around 95,000 poor, severe water shortage, and the government’s failure to provide clean drinking water

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are braced for a spirited assembly session on Thursday and Friday, which will be Atishi’s first as the chief minister — and Arvind Kejriwal’s first as only a legislator since 2013.

The new AAP government may also choose to prove its majority in the House. (Representative photo/HT Archive)

According to the list of business prepared by the Delhi assembly, the House will begin at 11am with obituary references, followed by special mentions, under which legislators will raise the issues pertaining to the city and their areas with the permission of the chair.

The AAP government may use the sitting to prove its majority in the assembly, which is meeting four days after the new Delhi cabinet was sworn in, said officials aware of the matter, adding that this was yet to be confirmed.

“The date (for the likely trust vote) has not been finalised,” said an AAP leader who asked not to be named.

Delhi’s ruling party has a comfortable 60 MLA majority in the 70-member assembly. The BJP has seven members and the remaining three seats are vacant.

Atishi, who took oath as Delhi’s eighth chief minister on Saturday, has insisted that she is a placeholder for Kejriwal, who will return to his “rightful” position if re-elected to power.

However, she has also stressed that one of the key tasks during her time as chief minister will be to ensure that the AAP government’s flagship schemes, such as subsidised power and water, free bus rides for women and affordable treatment at Mohalla clinics, continue uninterrupted.

The AAP is battling allegations of financial irregularities and crumbling civic infrastructure in the Capital and the opposition BJP hopes to use the assembly session to try and corner the government on these issues, though this may be tough given the ruling party’s brute majority in the House.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator and leader of the opposition in the assembly Vijender Gupta said that the party’s MLAs will “compel” the government to discuss the problems of Delhi’s 20 million residents.

“We will demand answers from the government on many issues, including the death of 50 people due to waterlogging and electric shocks, pending CAG reports that have not been tabled and buried by the government, lack of ration cards for around 95,000 poor, severe water shortage, and the government’s failure to provide clean drinking water. In many places, people are being forced to drink sewage-contaminated water,” Gupta said during a press conference at the Delhi BJP office.