In Row with Lieutenant Governor, Arvind Kejriwal Has to Wait for Meeting With President

Here are 10 developments in the story:

1. Sources say the president’s office will “process Mr Kejriwal’s request” on Tuesday after Pranab Mukherjee returns from Uttarakhand He will address the state assembly there.


2. Mr Kejriwal has waited since Saturday for a word from the President. He sought an appointment with him at the height of a row over the Lieutenant Governor’s decision to promote senior IAS officer Shakuntala Gamlin as acting Chief Secretary, making her the top bureaucrat in Delhi.


3. The Chief Minister alleged on Sunday that Ms Gamlin was appointed as the Narendra Modi government at the Centre “wanted to make Delhi’s government fail.” The Lieutenant Governor reports to the Centre; the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has accused him of acting on orders from the ruling BJP.


4. Ms Gamlin is expected to attend office today with the Chief Minister vowing to keep a tab on her for the 10 days that she will work as chief secretary, and ensure that “every file first goes through the Chief Minister’s Office.”


5. Mr Kejriwal has accused the bureaucrat of using her post in the power department to favour companies that supply power to the capital, at the cost of public interest.


6. On Sunday, the Chief Minister said at a public meeting that Ms Gamlin wanted to trick the government into signing documents which would give Rs. 11,000 crore to power distribution firms. “She wanted the minister to sign a document and said it was just a formality. When our minister got this letter checked, it turned out to be a guarantee letter,” he said.


7. In his feud with the Lieutenant Governor, Mr Kejriwal has got unexpected support from the Congress and the Left.


8. Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said the acting chief secretary should have been appointed with the consent of the Chief Minister. “The chief secretary should be appointed as per the wishes of chief minister,” he said.


9. Minister for State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju says the AAP government is guilty of the “character assassination” of Shakuntala Gamlin, a woman officer from the North-East.


10. Ms Gamlin, who took charge on Saturday ignoring Mr Kejriwal’s request to turn down the post, has said in a letter to the Lieutenant Governor that the government’s allegations “could not be further removed from facts”.