Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party for 'making childish excuses' to delay civic body elections in the national capital, and has told the saffron party to 'stop crying like Congress’.
“They have come up with some justification for withholding poll dates by the Election Commission and said it had to be done because the Delhi government has not given funds to the MCD. What is this joke? It is a lame excuse, a childish excuse. Stop crying like Congress... and making childish excuses to run away from the civic polls in the city,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI while addressing a virtual press conference,
Sisodia also slammed BJP for 'misuse’ of central agencies, implying that the BJP had used the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation to 'threaten MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) officials so that they delay the civic polls.
"Have you threatened them with CBI or ED, or offered a lucrative position in return? A press conference, called to announce the dates of the MCD elections, turned into regret. How did this happen? Tell the nation," Sisodia asked the BJP.
"Don't run away from the election, face it if you have courage. The way you have tried to put the MCD election on hold by threatening and intimidating the election commission, is just not right," he added.
{{/usCountry}}"Don't run away from the election, face it if you have courage. The way you have tried to put the MCD election on hold by threatening and intimidating the election commission, is just not right," he added.
{{/usCountry}}The BJP, on Friday, accused Arvind Kejriwal of 'starving local bodies' for funds. Delhi unit chief Aadesh Gupta and union minister Smriti Irani said the Kejriwal government had not paid ₹13,000 crore due to civic bodies in the national capital. "Kejriwal is killing democracy at the very grassroots by starving local bodies of funds," Smriti Irani said.
Delhi chief minister Kejriwal on Friday had criticised the BJP, in power at the centre, for asking the Election Commision to delay civic body polls in the national capital, calling it an 'unprecedented' and 'unconstitutional' move.
"Perhaps, this is the first time in the last 75 years of independent India's history that the centre wrote to the Election Commission for delaying the polls," the 53-year-old leader said in a video address, adding that "putting pressure on the poll body weakens its role".