After his appointment as the Delhi Lieutenant Governor in May 2022, VK Saxena would often target the then AAP government in public over civic issues. But since the BJP government took charge in February 2025, his position seems to have softened.
Until February this year, there had been at least 10 condemnatory press statements, surprise inspections, and social media criticism followed by instructions to officials. But in the first 100 days of the BJP government, the critical press releases have been zero, surprise inspections discontinued, and social media criticism nil.
The war of words between the L-G and the AAP was also linked to the centre’s tussle with the Delhi government over demarcation of powers. This tussle now seems to be buried with the Supreme Court allowing the Delhi government to withdraw seven cases filed by the erstwhile AAP government against the centre and L-G over several issues, including the control over services.
Events linked to central schemes
During the AAP’s tenure, representatives of the elected government of Delhi were not invited to events that were under the centre’s jurisdiction. Under the BJP, three such events have been held so far, with all of them attended by representatives of the elected government of Delhi.
For example, on May 27, when Saxena handed out job offers to victims of 1984 Sikh riots in Delhi, it was in the presence of CM Rekha Gupta. This was unlike January 6, when 47 appointment letters were handed out in the absence of representatives of the then AAP government while Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva was in attendance. Similarly, in March, the L-G inaugurated the Amrut Biodiversity Part, built by the Delhi Development Authority, along with BJP MLA Abhay Verma – in 2022, he had inaugurated a DDA project on the banks of river Yamuna alone. In May, Rekha Gupta was present when the L-G, in collaboration with Indraprastha Gas Limited, inaugurated a PNG facility in 111 villages of Delhi under his Delhi Gramodayan Abhiyan campaign.
Credit wars to ‘joint efforts’
During the AAP government, several joint collaborations would be followed by credit wars on social media.
For example, in September 2023, L-G Saxena and then CM Arvind Kejriwal flagged off the first tranche of 400 electronic buses. Speaking after the inauguration, Kejriwal said that Delhi has now become the city with the most number of electronic buses on the street and his government’s target was to ensure that 80 percent of the capital’s buses are electronic by the end of December 2025.
But in a series of posts, Saxena said this tranche was only part of 1,500 buses being provided by the centre with 921 of them being fully subsidised by the Modi government. Kejriwal then argued that the centre would only bear 10 percent of the cost for those 921 vehicles. This was after the inauguration of these buses was delayed by two months over the question of who would launch them – the Delhi government or the centre.
This is in contrast to such events attended by CM Rekha Gupta and the L-G since February, where both the Raj Niwas and the CM’s office either appreciated each other or highlighted their “joint efforts”.
Surprise inspections
Saxena’s surprise inspections were typically joined by the Chief Secretary of Delhi and senior officials from various state government departments. These visits were followed by either direct instructions to officers or press statements expressing concern over the state of affairs in the capital.
These inspections covered areas such as horticulture, night shelters, waterlogging issues, and desilting operations across the capital.
For example, in May 2022, within just a day of joining the office, he undertook an inspection of the stretch between Raj Niwas and Connaught Place, and pointed out the “lack of uniformity and haphazard growth of plants, dried up vegetation, litter and garbage mounds”. He gave a list of instructions to officials.
In December 2022, he undertook another surprise visit to night shelters on ISBT and adjacent to Hanuman Mandir and expressed “shock that thousands were forced to defecate in the open in the National Capital” when “remote areas in the country are achieving the goal of Open Defecation Free India”. He said that he will ensure ample provision of basic amenities for homeless people and will also take up the matter with the CM.
He made three visits to review desilting efforts at Najafgarh drain, which contributes the most to pollution in the Yamuna. These visits took place even before Saxena was chosen to lead the committee set up to supervise the Yamuna clean-up. After these inspections, he would direct officials to use different techniques for desilting.
In April 2025, he conducted a joint inspection with CM Rekha Gupta at multiple locations, including Najafgarh drain, to review ongoing clean-up and water management efforts across the city. But this time, the difference, according to his posts, was that it was the CM who had directed officials to prepare a comprehensive action plan.
Monsoon blame
Last July, three UPSC aspirants drowned in the basement of an Old Rajinder Nagar coaching facility and another was electrocuted on a waterlogged lane in Patel Nagar. At the time, Saxena took to X, calling the tragedies a result of “criminal neglect” and a “larger malaise of misgovernance that Delhi has been subjected to during the last decade or so”.
In response, the AAP accused Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar, who was seen as Saxena’s pick, of failing to desilt drains and not responding properly to communication. Saxena defended Kumar and accused the Delhi government of sitting on files. He then met protesting students in Rajinder Nagar and announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the victims’ families. While the AAP government requested action against Kumar, Saxena suspended two fire safety officers over “negligence”. He also carried out surprise solo inspections.
All this two months after the Delhi High Court had flagged the governance mess and the involvement of at least 11 agencies in Delhi’s drainage problem.
This year, the script has flipped. So far, Saxena has praised BJP’s monsoon preparations, tweeting about “seamless governance free of pointless blame games”. Joint inspections with CM Gupta and PWD Minister Parvesh Verma are showcased as proof of “double-engine sarkar”.
In May, when rain lashed Delhi leaving several areas waterlogged, the L-G complimented the Rekha Gupta government for “striving” to make drains flow and mitigate waterlogging. He said Gupta’s “consistent efforts” had started showing results though “the morass set in due to neglect of more than a decade will take considerable time getting fully sorted.”
Similarly, in March, after CM Rekha Gupta announced a ferry service in Yamuna to boost tourism, Saxena called it a “milestone”. He said the project was earlier held up due to “negative politics”. “Two years ago, to make the Yamuna navigable, I requested an Indian Navy boat and tried to make it operational in Yamuna. The then CM went to the Supreme Court and all those services were stopped,” he said.
Saxena was referring to 2023, when the AAP government had challenged an NGT order appointing Saxena to head a committee set up to clean up the Yamuna. The AAP called the order unconstitutional.
In December 2024, Saxena wrote a scathing letter to Kejriwal: “The Yamuna has reached its highest pollution level… I hold you personally responsible, since you had filed a petition in the Supreme Court and stopped the cleaning work being done in the Yamuna.”
Yet, within weeks of BJP’s victory, Saxena rolled out a four-pronged Yamuna revival plan, emphasising that it will “require seamless coordination” between agencies. The Supreme Court allowed the Delhi government to withdraw its case challenging Saxena’s appointment as the committee chairperson. Unlike the AAP tenure when the L-G excluded representatives of the government which led to a credit war, he regularly shares videos of conducting joint operations with CM Rekha Gupta to review the clean-up process.
Solid waste
In February 2023, NGT had appointed the L-G as the chairperson of a high-level committee on solid waste management. In June 2023, the then AAP government moved the Supreme Court challenging what it saw as an unconstitutional appointment – among the cases that have now been settled.
Following his appointment, Saxena would regularly post about visiting garbage mounds in Okhla, Ghazipur and Bhalswa and his office’s achievements in tackling the disposal of waste. For example, in March 2023, he posted that the MCD had started disposing of more waste after he started taking stock of the situation. Representatives of the AAP government would never be included in the operations of the committee.
In March, Saxena and CM Rekha Gupta went on a bamboo plantation drive at the Bhalswa landfill site to mark the beginning of the transformation of garbage dump areas into green zones. Sharing pictures on X, Saxena wrote that it was “gratifying” to plant bamboo trees on the land along with CM Rekha Gupta, finance minister Majinder Singh Sirsa and BJP MP Yogendra Chandolia. Gupta also commended the L-G’s leadership. “The L-G has played a crucial role in Delhi’s transformation. His leadership has been a shield, protecting the city and guiding its development.”
Between February to May this year, Saxena has attended 10 ceremonial events – he attended five during the same time period in 2023.
Newslaundry reached out to Saxena, Rekha Gupta and former CM Atishi Singh for comment. This copy will be updated if they respond.
Small teams can do great things. All it takes is a subscription. Subscribe now and power Newslaundry’s work.
Newslaundry is a reader-supported, ad-free, independent news outlet based out of New Delhi. Support their journalism, here.
