'We are answerable to Delhi, hence we must appoint our own officials': Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said that his government is answerable to the people of the national capital and thus must be given the right to appoint officials of their preference.

"It is being said that the day the Lieutenant Governor [Najeeb Jung] started acting against Kejriwal, his position became more secure. The LG did not ask me about the situation of electricity in the city even once. However, he is showing an unbelievable amount of interest in the transfers and posting of government officials," Kejriwal said, while addressing the Delhi Assembly here.

"We have made many promises to the people and they have expectations with us, not with the LG. And the people have lost expectations with the Prime Minister, which is why only three BJP MLAs were elected in Delhi. We are answerable to the people, hence we must have the right to appoint our officials," he added.

Kejriwal further speculated what Jung's relationship with the BJP's chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi would have been, had she been elected to the top post.

"If Kiran Bedi was elected the chief minister, would the LG still be interfering the way he has been? If he had interfered even once, he would have been removed from his post," he said.

Kejriwal was speaking at a special session of the Delhi Assembly, which was called after the Centre's notification, which gave absolute powers to the Lieutenant Governor on transfer and postings of senior bureaucrats and restricted the Anti-Corruption Bureau from probing central government employees.

The assembly later passed a resolution against the notification through voice vote.