AAP says LG cancelled allotment of bungalow for party office

New Delhi, April 7 (IANS) Accusing the BJP of playing dirty politics, the AAP on Friday said Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal had cancelled the allotment of a bungalow on 206 Rouse Avenue, renamed Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, that houses the AAP headquarters.

However, the Lt. Governor's Office did not confirm the development.

Speaking at a public meeting at Nangloi here, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said he got to know that the Lt Governor had cancelled the allotment of the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg bungalow to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Kejriwal said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government first got a CBI raid conducted against him but found nothing.

"Then they said they would recover Rs 97 crore from me. I don't even have 97 rupees... My only fault was that I worked for people's welfare," the AAP leader said.

Baijal had last month asked the Delhi government to recover Rs 97 crore from the AAP that it spent on certain advertisements.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the allotment of the party's office was cancelled because of the AAP's fight against corruption.

"It's not a joke. We are fighting a battle to save the nation from corrupt people and their agents. So this was bound to happen," Sisodia tweeted.

AAP leader Sanjay Singh accused the BJP of playing "dirty politics" and called the decision "unfortunate, unjust and non-democratic".

"Why so much enmity with the AAP? What crime has the AAP committed that you (Lt. Governor) do not let us work in Delhi?" he asked.

The AAP leader said despite holding 67 of the 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly, the AAP was not being allowed to have its office in the capital while both the BJP and the Congress with three and zero seats respectively had offices allotted for them.

"I do not understand what kind of discrimination is being done to the AAP."

The Lt Governor's move comes a day after a three-member Shunglu Committee appointed by the then Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung questioned a Cabinet decision to allot the government-owned Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg bungalow to the AAP for its office.

"Since land is a 'reserved' subject, this decision should be deemed null and void," the report said, referring to land in Delhi not falling under the city government's purview.

"The elected government doesn't have any power to deal with the subject of land, let alone allot it," the report added.

Headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General V.K. Shunglu, the committee was set up by Jung in August last year after the Delhi High Court gave primacy to the Lt. Governor in Delhi's administrative affairs.

The report was submitted to the L-G's office in November last year, weeks before Jung resigned on December 22.