AAP locks out babu from office as battle with LG escalates

The turf war between Lt Governor Najeeb Jung and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday turned uglier with the Aam Aadmi Party government locking the office of a senior bureaucrat, who had issued an order notifying the appointment of Shakuntala Gamlin as acting chief secretary.

When Principal Secretary (Services) Anindo Majumdar reached his office on Monday morning, he found that it had been locked as per the directive from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office.

Majumdar was removed from the post by Kejriwal on Saturday after he issued the appointment letter to Gamlin following instructions from Jung. The LG, on the same evening, had declared the order to transfer Majumdar “void” saying it did not have his approval.

“Mazumdar is likely to take up the issue of his office being locked with acting Chief Secretary Shakuntala Gamlin,” sources said.

On Sunday, Kejriwal had accused Gamlin of trying to favour two Reliance Infra-owned discoms through a Rs 11,000-crore loan and said the Modi government wants AAP dispensation to “fail”.

The confrontation over appointment of Gamlin as acting chief secretary had turned into a full-blown war between the ruling AAP and Jung last week with Kejriwal alleging that the LG was trying to take over the administration.

Despite Kejriwal’s strong opposition, Jung had appointed her to the post on Friday. On Saturday, the CM had asked her not to take charge of the post but she ignored his directive and followed the LG’s order.