Is Lakshadweep administrator being named Delhi LG, asks CM

Kejriwal has accused the state election commission of buckling under the BJP’s pressure and postponing the polls to the Delhi civic bodies, which are currently governed by the saffron party.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday asked if Lakshadweep administrator Praful K Patel will be appointed Delhi’s next Lieutenant Governor, setting off speculation in political and bureaucratic circles about the possibility of the 64-year-old succeeding Anil Baijal, who was appointed on December 31, 2016.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal  (HT Photo)

“Is Mr Praful Patel, Administrator of Lakshadweep, being made the next LG of Delhi?” Kejriwal tweeted on Saturday.

The Lakshadweep administrator’s office could not be reached for a comment.

Delhi LG Baijal’s office too did not respond on the matter.

Kejriwal’s tweet comes in the backdrop of an ongoing tussle between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the state election commission last week postponed the announcement of the Delhi civic body polls schedule, citing a letter from the Centre that ostensibly mentioned a reunification of the MCD.

The CM has accused the state election commission of buckling under the BJP’s pressure and postponing the polls to the Delhi civic bodies, which are currently governed by the saffron party. Kejriwal said the BJP fears losing the upcoming elections, even as senior BJP leaders dismissed the claims and labelled the move a “municipal reform”.

SEC officials, meanwhile, clarified that the civic body polls had neither been deferred nor postponed and added that only the announcement of the election dates had been pushed back by “a few days”.

“A group of Delhi BJP leaders had a meeting with Praful Patel in the city recently,” said a senior Delhi BJP leader, who asked not to be named.

The tweet also comes two days after the AAP swept the Punjab elections.

Patel was appointed the administrator of Lakshadweep in December 2020 after the incumbent, Dineshwar Sharma, died. Though the LGs do not have a fixed tenure, they usually serve for five years.

Experts said the tweet gains importance owing to the history of conflict between the AAP government and the LG. The tussle for administrative control of Delhi came to a head in 2015, when AAP swept to power and repeatedly clashed with the BJP over transfer and appointment of top bureaucrats. The former also accused the latter of trying to rule the city by proxy.

There has been a host of confrontations between the LG and the elected government since Baijal took charge, with the conflict reaching its climax when Kejriwal and state cabinet ministers sat on a nine-day-long strike in 2018 inside Raj Niwas, the LG’s office, over a couple of demands including lack of cooperation from bureaucrats.

In July 2018, the top court ruled that the L-G was bound to listen to the city’s elected government and couldn’t act independently, prompting the AAP government to claim victory. All decisions by Delhi’s council of ministers must be communicated to the L-G but his concurrence was not required, the five-judge bench headed by then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra ruled.

However, the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) (Amendment) Act, 2021, passed by Parliament in March last year gives sweeping powers to Delhi’s LG for running day-to-day business of the Capital and almost takes away administrative control from the Delhi government. The AAP government moved the Supreme Court challenging the amendments, saying the overriding powers given to the LG is unconstitutional. The BJP, however, has said the amendments only define the powers of the LG more clearly.

HT contacted many Delhi BJP leaders, none of whom wished to comment on the matter.

“Delhi is a union territory with a legislative assembly where many subjects like police, land and public order are under the Union government. Due to multiplicity of agencies, a bureaucrat has often been favoured over others for appointment as LG believing that they ensure better coordination among the various agencies...,” said retired IAS officer KS Mehra.