AAP on Friday invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the swearing-in ceremony of Arvind Kejriwal on February 16 even as Delhi BJP conducted a series of meetings to analyse its poll debacle in the Delhi Assembly elections.
President Ram Nath Kovind also issued an order appointing Kejriwal as the new Chief Minister besides Manish Sisodia, Satyender Jain, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gehlot, Imran Hussain, and Rajendra Gautam as his Cabinet colleagues.
Kejriwal wrote a letter to Modi requesting him to attend the swearing-in ceremony scheduled for Sunday at Ramlila Maidan where preparations are on full swing for the mega event for which AAP hopes to mobilise a large number of people.
Modi may not attend the swearing-in ceremony as he is scheduled to travel to Varanasi, his Parliamentary constituency, on Sunday to inaugurate over 30 projects.
While all seven Delhi MPs and eight newly-elected BJP MLAs have been invited to the event, Kejriwal has not invited any leaders from other political parties as he appeared not keen to make it an Opposition show of strength.
AAP leaders said Kejriwal had not invited leaders on the previous two occasions too, as it is a "Delhi- centric" event.
The Delhi government also issued newspaper advertisements on Friday inviting Delhiites to attend the oath-taking ceremony.
Kejriwal has decided to retain his team, ending speculation about the possible induction of new faces like Atishi, Raghav Chadha and Dilip Pandey, as he preferred continuity. The Delhi Cabinet can have a maximum of seven ministers, including the Chief Minister, and it would not have been an easy task for Kejriwal to drop someone and choose a new face, as there are several claimants.
Delhi government, North Delhi Municipal Corporation, which owns the Maidan, and Public Works Department are making last-minute arrangements at Ramlila Maidan to accommodate the huge crowd that is expected to come for the event. Senior AAP leader Gopal Rai is scheduled to review the preparations at Ramlila Maidan on Saturday.
Separately, BJP General Secretaries Arun Singh and Anil Jain held a series of meetings to review the party's performance in the elections, in which it could win only eight out of 70 seats while AAP won a whopping 62.
In the meetings attended by Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari among othes, some leaders said that the party was not effective in its tackling the issues raised by AAP. Party MLAs, candidates who lost the polls, councillors and office bearers attended the meeting.