Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Delhi Chief Minister- designate Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia at a meeting at the formers residence in New Delhi on Wednesday. (PTI photo)
Arvind Kejriwal will be sworn in as chief minister on Saturday, but he is already at work. Since morning he has met a couple of senior central ministers and brought up the key AAP agenda of full statehood for Delhi.
This evening, Mr Kejriwal also met Delhi's chief secretary DM Spolia and in a move much like that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the days after he won the national elections, has asked all departments of the Delhi government to make presentations to him next week.
On Tuesday, Mr Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party delivered to the PM Modi's BJP its first major blow since the national elections. The party, which had swept Delhi's seven Lok Sabha seats last May, has been reduced to a mere spectator with only three seats in the 70-member assembly. All the rest 67 seats were won by AAP.
The campaign for Delhi was bitter, but Mr Kejriwal has demonstrated already that he will put that behind him now, aware that he needs the Centre's support to fulfil the mega promises he has made to Delhi's voters. And he has said as much.
When the PM called to congratulate him on his stunning win, Mr Kejriwal asked for the Centre's support and won an assurance from him.
He is scheduled to meet the PM tomorrow morning; AAP has said it will
invite PM Modi for Mr Kejriwal's oath ceremony. His party colleague
Kumar Vishwas told NDTV today, "we want to stop corruption, not Modi."
Accompanied by party leader Manish Sisodia, the AAP chief today held meetings with union home minister Rajnath Singh and urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu and reportedly discussed with both the issue of full statehood for Delhi.
"We have discussed various issues with the home minister, including the issue of full statehood for Delhi," Mr Sisodia said, adding that Rajnath Singh said "the party line would not come in between the working of the two governments".
With Mr Naidu the AAP leaders discussed building schools, parking and play grounds in Delhi and also spoke about regularisation of unauthorised colonies.