Niti Aayog rubbishes Kejriwal’s claim of Lt Gov replacing him at meet

Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, on Sunday denied Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's allegation that Lt Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal had replaced him at the Aayog’s fourth Governing Council meeting.

"Arvind Kejriwal was invited like all the other Chief Ministers. We repeatedly asked him to come to the meeting but there was no communication from his side," Kant said in a press conference after the meeting.

On June 17 morning, Kejriwal had questioned Lt Governor Anil Baijal's presence in the meeting in place of him. "Under which provision of the Constitution does LG have powers to replace the Chief Minister? I have not authorised him to go in my place," Kejriwal had tweeted.

Amitabh Kant, replying to Kejriwal's tweet, said: "This is totally incorrect. Lt Governor of Delhi is not present at the Fourth Meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog."

Kant also clarified at the press conference that Lt Governor Baijal could not be in the meeting because "he is not the member of NITI AAayog Governing Council". Kant said Kejriwal has tweeted that Lt Governor was present in the meeting "so we also clarified through the tweet that he was not present".

Arvind Kejriwal didn't attend the NITI Aayog meeting because he is on protest at the Lt Governor's office. He, along with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Cabinet ministers Satyendar Jain and Gopal Rai, are camping at Raj Niwas since June 11, demanding a direction to the IAS officers working in the Delhi administration to end their undeclared strike. Kejriwal also wants the Central government to approve his government's proposal to deliver ration to the poor at their houses.

NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said that while the rest of the Chief Ministers skipping the meet informed him beforehand citing reasons such as flood in their states etc, Kejriwal did not inform in advance.

With IANS inputs