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Election dates delay: AAP to ‘gherao’ BJP HQ today against ‘deferred’ polls
The state poll body last week postponed the announcement of the mcd election dates.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said it will stage a protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday for allegedly forcing the State Election Commission (SEC) to ‘defer’ the municipal elections in the national capital, which were scheduled to be held in April.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led party on Sunday alleged that the election panel planned to conduct the MCD elections next month, but the BJP wanted it to be deferred and hence, “threatened and blackmailed” the SEC.
“Tomorrow at 10am, AAP workers and the people of Delhi will assemble at our party office and then move to gherao the BJP headquarters to protest against their dictatorship and demand that the MCD elections be held in April. The AAP will prepare its strategy for a big fight against the BJP’s dictatorship,” said Durgesh Pathak, who is a member of the AAP’s political affairs committee and the party’s MCD in-charge.
Meanwhile, SEC officials clarified that the civic body polls had neither been deferred nor postponed and added that only the announcement of the election dates had been pushed back by “a few days”.
Pathak also hit out at the BJP on the issue of cleanliness in the city, alleging that the civic body, under the saffron party, has kept “entire Delhi dirty”. “Don”t run away, let the elections be held. The people of Delhi will decide (the poll outcome),” he said in his message to the BJP.
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow the municipal elections in the national capital, saying postponing polls will weaken the democratic system. He also asked S K Srivastava to not “buckle under pressure” and tell the world whether he was being “threatened or lured”.
BJP spokespersons did not respond to messages from HT seeking a response on AAP’s protest.
