Delhi's ruling AAP on Monday protested against the federally ruling BJP over the State Election Commission (SEC) “deferring” civic elections in the city.
The civic bodies – Municipal Corporations of Delhi (MCD) – are ruled by the BJP while the Government of Delhi is led by state chief and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal.
AAP's politician and Delhi Minister Gopal Rai, the party’s lawmaker Atishi Marlena, and their party's MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak led the protest which started from the party’s office in the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg area in the morning.
Hundreds of AAP workers from across the city converged and raised slogans against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Addressing the gathering of AAP workers, Pathak said that the BJP has forced the SEC to defer the MCD polls fearing defeat in the polls.
"They know that if once the AAP will come to power in MCD their politics in the national capital will end,” he said.
He also alleged that Delhi’s election commissioner gave in to the pressure of the federal government. “It has been learnt from reliable sources that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has a file which has the cases of corruption against him (the election commissioner). He was threatened that if he announced the dates of elections, he would be put behind bars."
He claimed that if the MCD polls were conducted on time, the AAP would have successfully won 260 of the 272 seats, with a margin of around 5,000 votes on each seat.
Pathak also claimed that if the polls were deferred, there was a strong possibility of AAP making a clean sweep in the MCD polls. He appealed to people to support his party.
Delhi Minister Gopal Rai and AAP politicians Atishi Marlena also addressed the protesters and slammed the BJP for postponing the MCD polls.
However, the AAP politicians and workers couldn’t march towards the BJP headquarters as planned because the police blocked their path.
AAP Workers Marching Towards BJP Headquarters in Delhi Stopped by Police
© Sputnik / Rahul Trivedi
After being stopped by the police, AAP workers raised slogans against Prime Minister Modi and the BJP. They also staged a sit-in protest in front of the barricades.
The politicians then asked the party workers to leave the protest site and reach out to the people of the city to make them aware of the undemocratic practices adopted by the BJP-led federal government.
Pathak told the protesters that the party wanted to intensify the agitation against the deferment of the polls and would soon inform the party workers about it.
On Saturday, AAP national convener and Delhi State Chief Arvind Kejriwal slammed the federal government over the delay in MCD polls and appealed to Prime Minister Modi to let the civic body polls take place.
He said that forcing the election commission to postpone the elections is “unprecedented, unconstitutional, and bad for democracy."
Delhi Government Minister Gopal Rai Addressing AAP Workers During Protest against BJP over Delay in Civic Body Polls
© Sputnik / Rahul Trivedi
As per media reports, the elections have been postponed because the federal government has plans to bring a bill in the Budget Session of Parliament, which is resuming from Monday, to unify the three municipal corporations of Delhi.
The MCD was trifurcated into three civic bodies – the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, South Delhi Municipal Corporation, and East Delhi Municipal Corporation – in 2012.