New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee finally accepted former lieutenant general Najeeb Jung’s “surprise” resignation and gave his ascent for the appointment of former Union home secretary Anil Baijal as the 21st L-G of Delhi.
While Mr Jung had been appointed as the L-G during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Congress-led regime, Mr Baijal’s appointment comes at a time when the Central government is led by the BJP, which is likely to face stiff competition from the Aam Aadmi Party in the next year’s Assembly elections in the neighbouring state of Punjab, Gujarat and Goa.
Mr Baijal, who enjoys the confidence of some top BJP leaders, will have a difficult task ahead in deciding on those files, which the AAP Cabinet had approved without seeking prior approval of Raj Niwas. The recent Delhi high court judgment ruling that the L-G is the administrative head of the state could further exacerbate the conflict.
The 1969-batch Indian Administrative officer of the Union Territories Cadre will have to take a call on several contentious policy decisions over which his predecessor Mr Jung had several run-ins with chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. The Delhi CM had time and again accused Mr Jung of trying to run the city administration by proxy on behalf of the Prime Minister’s Office and BJP supremo Amit Shah.
Though Mr Baijal has the experience of serving the city in the capacity of the vice-chairman of the Delhi Development Authority, he will now have to navigate complicated jurisdictional issues that arise out of Delhi’s unique position as a union territory acting as the national capital.
The former bureaucrat was also on the executive council of the think-tank Vivekananda International Foundation, several of whose former members have been appointed to senior positions by the Modi government including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Soon after the President cleared Mr Baijal’s name, Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, who too had served as the Delhi CM for a brief stint, congratulated him on Twitter.
Mr Baijal, who had worked as the Union home secretary in the NDA government under former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was removed from the post when the UPA government assumed power in May, 2004.
