Before backing Arvind Kejriwal, 4 CMs had a 2-hour meeting

The people of Delhi will ever be grateful to you sirs N Chandrababu Naidu, Pinarayi Vijayan, H D Kumaraswamy and Mamata Banerjee didi. We all will work together to save democracy. Thank you so much: Arvind Kejriwal

All the four CMs at Arvind Kejriwal’s residence on Sunday. (Twitter/@AamAadmiParty)

Before the four opposition Chief Ministers came out in united support of their Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal and spoke of the need to preserve “cooperative federalism”, there was a nearly two-hour-long meeting, during which West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee rallied for the need to support him.

Banerjee, who arrived in Delhi on Saturday evening, said she had been in touch with Kejriwal, texting him three days ago to ask if the “problem had been solved”. After visiting ailing former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee at AIIMS, she made her way to Andhra Bhawan, where Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu and Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy were. At the meeting, the discussions revolved around the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman elections and the NITI Aayog meeting, and Banerjee also argued for the need to show solidarity for Kejriwal. “Even if some BJP chief minister calls me and asks for some help, do you think I won’t help,” she said.

By 8 pm, the four CMs had sent a letter to Baijal asking for permission to meet him to discuss the situation in Delhi. When that didn’t yield a result, the four sought permission to meet Kejriwal. When that wasn’t given either, “the discussion turned to whether or not to march”, said a source. Banerjee’s initial plan was to march to the LG office, where Kejriwal and three ministers are on a sit-in. But the three other CMs intervened. “It was felt this could diminish the stature of the CMs and that it could be argued they were creating a law and order problem,” said a source.

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Later, Banerjee also weighed the fact that the LG is a “constitutional post” and that she respected it. “He didn’t give us permission for meeting?… We can only work according to the Constitution. This is not a democracy, where we can’t even meet the Chief Minister or the LG,” she said at the press conference later. Asked about the decision to cancel the initial plan to march to the LG’s office, Banerjee said, “Don’t consider us so small. We are not street beggars, we have self respect.”

“If this is the situation in Delhi, what do you think is the situation everywhere in the country… this is the capital of the country… if a CM asks for an appointment and even six minutes are not spared, whose door will he knock,” she said. AAP sources, meanwhile, confirmed that the Left will be supporting their march to the PMO on Sunday.

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Arvind Kejriwal