Delhi civic body polls: AAP moves Supreme Court against delay in announcement of schedule

In its plea, the Arvind Kejriwal-lead party urged the top court to direct the State Election Commission to conduct these polls in a ‘free and fair’ manner.

Miffed with the delay in announcement of schedule for Delhi civic polls, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday approched the Supreme Court, seeking directions from the top court to the State Election Commission (SEC) to conduct these elections in a ‘free and fair’ manner.

The Delhi SEC is yet to announce dates for civic polls. (HT PHOTO)

“AAP moves Supreme Court seeking directions to the SEC to conduct the Delhi municipal elections in a free, fair and expeditious manner, without any interference from the central government,” news agency ANI reported.

The Delhi state election commission was scheduled to announce the polls on March 9; however, in a press conference that evening, the body, citing a letter from the Union government, informed that it has decided to defer the announcement of dates for the crucial electoral exercise.

“The announcement has been postponed for a few days as we received a communication from the Centre, who said that it has plans to unify the three municipal corporations. We will seek legal opinion on the issue. Also, since the elections have to be completed before May 18, we still have a lot of time,” SK Srivastava, the state election commissioner, told reporters in the press conference.

Delhi has three municipal corporations--North, South and East--all of which have been with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2012. While the AAP has been in power in the national capital since December 2013, the third major party, the Congress, last won the civic body polls in 2007.

In the previous elections, which were held in April 2017, the BJP won 181 out of the total 272 seats, while the AAP bagged 49 seats. The Congress, meanwhile, slumped to 31 seats.