Did Najeeb Jung quit or was he told to go?

New Delhi: Did former lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung quit or was he asked to go. Sources in the Delhi government close to the former L-G claimed that Mr Jung was “asked to go as he failed to deliver on his promises to the Centre”.

It was alleged that the Centre wanted Mr Jung to “discredit” the AAP government and “if possible prepare a report, which could pave a way to dislodge the state government.”

After Mr Jung reportedly did not deliver on his efforts to disturb Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, the Centre apparently “began to get disillusioned with him and began looking for an option”, sources in Raj Niwas said. Efforts to contact Mr Jung failed as his phone went unanswered.

A senior AAP functionary who also believed that the former L-G was “given marching orders” recollected that in a television interview Mr Jung had said: “Let’s see who lasts for five years. Me or Kejriwal.” He claimed that neither PM Narendra Modi nor BJP chief Amit Shah could “digest the drubbing in the Delhi polls” and efforts were on to “dislodge or discredit the government”. Mr Jung was “initially very effective as he tried out all possible attempts to discredit the AAP government, particularly after the high court ruling”. The AAP government moved the HC for

L-G turning down sever-al of the AAP’s policy decisions. The HC ruled that the L-G was the administrative head of the city. Armed with the high court order, the L-G then revers-ed transfers and postings of several bureaucrats and set up a three-member probe committee headed by the former CAG V.K. Shunglu to probe 400-odd files related to the decisions taken by the AAP government.

It was further claimed by the Delhi government officials that on the basis of the Shunglu report, the Centre wanted Mr Jung to prepare the ground for the imposition of President’s Rule. A source close to Mr Jung, however, said that he was not in favour of dislodging the elected government and was resisting it, which led to his sudden “resignation”. Social acti-vist and former AAP lead-er Prashant Bhushan also tweeted on Thursday: “So Mr Jung was removed because he refused to recommend Pres. Rule in Delhi despite Modi’s prod. AAP will now miss Jung.”

While Mr Jung may have failed to deliver, the AAP grew in strength and expa-nded its reach to Punjab, Goa and even to Modi’s lair — Gujarat. For AAP, “Mr Jung would never have quit on his own”. It was also alleged that besides the Centre and top Union ministers, Mr Jung was “also in close touch with BJP’s Vijender Gupta and Congress’ Ajay Maken.”

When contacted, BJP Leader of the Opposition, Vijender Gupta rubbished claims that Mr Jung was given the marching orders. He said it was a “figment of imagination” of the AAP. On the issue of the Centre’s tacit moves to dislodge the AAP government, Mr Gupta said: “Mr Jung has himself said that he was keen to pursue academics. Since AAP has been exposed on every front, they are now spreading such blatant lies.”