ARVIND KEJRIVAL’S MASTER STROKE FOR 2019 AND 2020 ELECTIONS

The Aam Admi Party seems to have tightened its belt for the national and well as the Delhi state elections slated for 2019 and 2020 and this can be substantiated by the three major cabinet decisions and approvals the Delhi government led by chief minister Arvind Kejrival and his cabinet has taken yesterday i.e. on 7th August pertaining to about one hundred and twenty percent hike in the MLA development fund from Rs 4 crores annually to Rs 10 crores, establishment of 15 new academies in Delhi and approval of the pensions for the handicapped etc. The 120% staggering increase in the MLA annual fund is going to put an additional burden of 420 crores on the states’ exchequer for which the chief minister Delhi Arvind Kejrival says there is no need to seek the central approval nor for opening 15 new academies as the apex court had already made it transparently clear that except the police, law and order and land subjects, the government of NCT Delhi is not legally or constitutionally bound to seek the centre permission or approval. The Bhartiya Janata Party which has merely three MLAs in the Delhi assembly however has badly opposed the increase saying that unless the developmental procedures pertaining to the execution of various schemes are not simplified, there is no use of such a gigantic enhancement of the MLA fund. The Delhi chief minister on the other hand has said that the government of NCT of Delhi are giving full discreation to the Delhi lawmakers to use the budget without any deterrent ot bottlenecks. It may be recalled that this enhancement in the MLA annual fund is the biggest in India as no other state has such a huge budget in terms of MLA development funds. There are number of complaints about the non use and alleged misuse of these funds in majority of the MLA constituencies in several states including Delhi hence such a huge increase is considered to be arbitrary as per the BJPs stand. The Aam Aadmi Party on the other hand is in a perpetual hurry to carry out various developmental projects in all the 66 constituencies being represented by the AAP lawmakers. Siurces reveal that though the AAP government has done remarkable work in the water, electricity, health care, education, social welfare and transport sectors by giving several concessions and free services to the Delhi electorates hailing from the lower middle class, minorities, backward and Dalit sections of the society it has badly lacked on the infrastructural and constituency wise development front at the decentralised level. Hence this rapid increase in the MLA fund from 4 crores annually to 10 crores. The enhanced fund will be officially delivered to every MLA by the end of this year or the starting of 2019. The AAP government strategically wants that the massive development activities gets started in the initial months 2019 in all the constituencies and goes on for the year so that the electorates of Delhi keep the constituency wose decentralized development fresh in their minds and vote for the party enmasse during the 2020 state elections. Moreover, by opening new academies of Garhwali- Kumaoni, Bangla, Kannada, Bengali, Kashmiri, Assamese, Telegu, Malyali, Tamil, Prakrit Pali languages etc it is trying to captire the vote bank of all these communities living in Delhi. What is surprising and shocking part of the whole episode is that the Congress party has not criticized Arvind Kejrival n AAP either on the formation of new academies and increase in the MLA fund despite it not having a single MLA in Delhi. The reason is unambiguous that Rahul Gandhi has a bigger motive of opposition unity against BJP in mind and therefore he do not want to annoy Arvind Kejrival. It may be recalled that Arvind Kejrival was present in the opposition conglomeration at Jantar Mantar with Rahul Gandhi in the protest Dharna against the mass rape of women n girls in Muzaffarpur, Bihar shelter home.What’s your take friends?