It has been four months since he resigned as the Chief Minister of Delhi, but people continue to ask Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal the same question – why he resigned. People from areas which form AAP’s core support base like slum clusters and lower middle class settlements, despite expressing their disappointment, have assured him of their support in the next Assembly polls.

In a Mohalla Sabha organised on Kalibari Road in his Assembly constituency of New Delhi on Friday, most of the electorate continued to reiterate the question. “Aapko resign nahi karna chahiye tha. Hum sab ne AAP ke liye bahot kaam kiya tha. Aap rahte to hamare bahot kaam ho jaatey (You should not have resigned. We worked a lot to ensure AAP’s victory. Had you continued as Delhi Chief Minister, a lot of our problems could have been sorted out),” said Ashok Kumar to the AAP leader when he was given the mike to speak.

Rohini, a woman in her 20s, almost pleadingly said, “ Aapne resign karke sab paani pher diya. Humko kitni ummid thi (By resigning, you undid everything. We had pinned so much hope on you).”

The AAP leader ready with the answer, said: “Please do not be disappointed. You know it was getting difficult to govern with just 27 MLAs. We want to work for you. So give us a majority this time and we will be free to fulfil all the promises we made to you.”

During the public meeting, organised to consult people on how to spend the recently released MLA development fund of Rs.4 crore, most residents from around Kalibari Road spoke on the absence of streetlights in some stretches, absence of well maintained public toilets and the lack of benches in the park. Some of them also asked when the Kalibari slums would be rehabilitated.

AAP asks L-G to fix accountability for power cuts

The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday demanded that the Union Power Ministry and the Delhi Lieutenant-Governor fix accountability for the ongoing power crisis in the Capital. The party said instead of only blaming the May 30 storm which adversely affected the transmission lines, the Delhi administration should put in place a system to prevent any such power crisis in future.

Raising the issue, AAP spokesperson Dilip K. Pandey said: “It is a matter of grave concern that even two weeks after the May 30 thunderstorm, which the Power Department officials are blaming for the destruction of power cables and towers, no concrete action plan to prevent such a situation from arising in the future appears to be in place.”

“What is worrying is the complete lack of accountability in the functioning of the Power Department and the unexplained hesitation to fix responsibility for the long power cuts which made the life of people miserable in the scorching heat,” he added.

While arguing that there was indeed some merit in the statement of Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal that lack of investment in infrastructure for the past 10 years was responsible for the weak network of electricity transmission and distribution, the AAP leader said his “complete silence” on the functioning of the discoms was “beyond understanding”.