While the Congress hit back on Monday saying 16 issues required no support in the Delhi Assembly and two were out of its purview, the BJP has decided not to reply on the ground that it had not made any offer to the AAP.
Clarifying the party's stand, AICC general secretary in charge of Delhi Shakeel Ahmed, in a letter to Kejriwal, said, "In our letter, there is no mention of giving unconditional support. We have spoken about giving outside support which means that we will not be a part of the government's cabinet... We want Delhi to have an elected government and not be burdened unnecessarily. It's not possible for us to support BJP, which is why we had offered to support your party."
Reiterating the party's stand, the letter specified that of the 18 issues raised by the AAP, 16 were administrative decisions ' to be taken by the Chief Minister and the cabinet ' and don't involve the legislature. "Once the government is formed, the permission of the Delhi Assembly is not required for these decisions," it said.
The remaining two issues ' the Jan Lokpal Bill and full statehood of Delhi ' are outside the purview of the Delhi Government, said the letter. With regard to the Jan Lokpal Bill, Ahmed said the Congress would support any constitutional and legal amendments that AAP brings to Delhi's Lokayukta. "As per legal procedures, if you wish to amend (the Delhi Lokayukta Act) and if this amendment is constitutional and doesn't violate any central law, then we will support you," said the letter.
Criticising the AAP, Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel said, "The AAP should have told the L-G in two lines whether it wants to form government or not. Why this drama of listing points to seek support? Congress has told offered its support, why then do they need our assurance of support on issues they have listed? We have said we do not want to form government and we will not reply to the letter. Sources said the party has decided to target the AAP on wider political issues to "expose" it as a political adversary.
Meanwhile, AAP has called a meeting of its political affairs committee on Tuesday to discuss the responses of the Congress and BJP. "We will discuss the letter from the Congress and the BJP reaction... Only then will we formally comment on it," said Ashwathi Muralidharan, media coordinator.