Will respect people's verdict on government formation: Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal today said that he was personally against the formation of a coalition government but decided to go to people of Delhi for a referendum following a difference of opinion over the issue within the party. Kejriwal said he would respect and follow the “people’s verdict”, whether it was against or for the party. [caption id=“attachment_1295093” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Arvind Kejriwal. AP[/caption] He said there was a divided opinion over the issue and during the meeting of MLAs, a section was of the view that AAP should not shy away from forming the government as Congress was extending unconditional support. According to some MLAs, the party could implement its agenda as there would be no interference by the Congress. “I was personally against the forming of a government. Because we had maintained that we won’t take support from or give to Congress or BJP. But off late, a section of people started to say that we should form the government while another section was opposed to it, so we decided to go back to people to decide,” he said. AAP had yesterday decided to seek people’s opinion through SMS, mails, and phone on whether it should form the government or not with the outside support from the Congress. He said that among the many new things that AAP had brought into politics was the concept of participation of common man in formation of government. “Till now, political decisions were taken behind closed doors and after voting was over, there was no active participation of common man. But we have changed it and this is participatory democracy and many have welcomed it,” he told news channels. Asked whether the party was outsourcing its decision by going for a referendum, the AAP leader said “it was not outsourcing of decision but what happens today is outsourcing and we want to bring an end to this system.” Kejriwal said he agrees that the party cannot go to people for every decision but “participation of people was important in critical and important decisions”. PTI