NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee is learnt to have given a nod to Delhi lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung to explore the possibility of government formation by inviting BJP which finished as the single largest party, a development which will give the party headroom to continue with its efforts to muster a majority.
Sources in the government said the Centre will inform the Supreme Court of President’s view on government formation on Tuesday when during the hearing on AAP’s petition seeking the dissolution of Delhi assembly.
Although the President is supposed to reflect the Centre’s stand, his approval of Jung’s proposal to invite the single largest party reinforces the argument of BJP leadership that political process should be allowed to play out fully before taking a call on terminating the existence of the hung Delhi House.
The development comes in the wake of Election Commission’s notification scheduling bypolls for three assembly seats in November. The bypolls are being viewed as a potential opportunity for the BJP to realize its objective to have a saffron government from the same House. The constituencies in fray — Krishna Nagar, Tughlaqabad and Mehrauli — were won by BJP candidates, and the party will throw everything into the fight to retain them.
A repeat of their performance in the assembly elections will take their numbers from 29 to 32 including their lone Akali partner, and that much closer to the majority-mark in the 70-member assembly. Political circles have long been agog with speculation about efforts to reduce the effective strength of the assembly by engineering vacancies. Although no one has quit so far, BJP’s political opponents remain apprehensive.