Just like in the sixth Delhi Legislative Assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party may be poorly represented in the Aam Aadmi Party’s oath-taking ceremony on Saturday. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi cited prior engagements in Maharashtra for declining AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal’s invitation to attend the ceremony, some of the BJP’s Members of Parliament from Delhi said they would be out of town; had not received an invitation; or they were yet to make a decision.
Mr. Kejriwal had also invited Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu to the ceremony in separate meetings with them.
New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi and East Delhi MP Maheish Girri’s offices said that they would be out of town on Saturday .
North-West Delhi MP Udit Raj confirmed that he had received an invitation and that he would attend the ceremony. “The two governments will have to work in coordination in Delhi. Besides, he (Mr. Kejriwal) was my junior in the IRS service, so I also have an emotional link,” said Mr. Raj.
South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri said he had not received an invitation until Friday evening, and would consider if he got one. The other three MPs were unable to be reached for comment.
Among the three legislators, who were elected to the House, Rohini MLA Vijender Gupta and Vishwas Nagar MLA O.P. Sharma both said that they would attend the ceremony while Mustafabad legislator Jagdish Pradhan said that he had not been invited as yet.
Union Minister Harsh Vardhan, who was the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate ahead of the 2013 Delhi Assembly polls, was among the only ones, who attended the previous swearing-in of the AAP Cabinet in 2013.
