New Delhi: After the apex court today rapped the Centre and the Lt Governor over the delay in government formation in Delhi, AAP and Congress have charged that BJP was “running away” from fresh polls in the national capital, claims which were promptly countered by the saffron outfit.
“BJP is not confident of winning Assembly elections, that is why they are delaying it. It is playing dirty politics over the issue. If BJP had the magic numbers, it would have formed the government in the national capital,” AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal told reporters here.
“BJP knows it doesn't have the numbers... which is why it running away from fresh elections,” he said. Kejriwal also accused Delhi LG Najeeb Jung of favouring one particular party instead of protecting the Constitution. “It is very sad that instead of protecting constitution, the Lt Governor is working on the direction of one political party,” he said.
Congress, too, hit out at BJP in the wake of the Supreme Court reprimand earlier today and said that it was adopting different “tactics” to delay Assembly elections in Delhi. “From day one we are saying that BJP is running away from fresh elections. They are just finding excuses one after another. Congress will oppose BJP and can never think of an AAP-BJP government in Delhi... we will fully oppose it,” said DPCC chief Arvinder Singh.
“If BJP had the numbers, they would have formed the government.
“It is clear that they don't have the numbers, inviting BJP to form the government is not reasonable,” he averred. Reacting sharply to the allegations, BJP charged that former Delhi chief minister Kejirwal had left the people of the city in a limbo after he quit office here to pursue his prime ministerial ambitions.
“People of Delhi had given Mr Kejriwal the kind of mandate where his AAP had formed the government in Delhi with the support of Congress.
“Ironically, in a hurry to become the prime minister of the country, Mr Kejriwal left the people of Delhi in a limbo and rushed to Varanasi. But after he was taught a lesson throughout the country, today he has come back to Delhi and is expecting that the people of Delhi would support him,” said BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra. In the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year, Kejriwal had unsuccessfully contested against Narendra Modi in Varanasi while his party managed to win only four seats.
Stating that in a democracy, President's Rule cannot go on forever, the Supreme Court today questioned as to why the authorities had failed to act expeditiously in the matter of government formation in Delhi.
The Centre, for its part, told SC that President Pranab Mukherjee has given his consent to the LG's proposal for inviting BJP to form the government in Delhi. The LG had last month sent a report to the President seeking permission to invite BJP to form the government in Delhi.
In the report, Jung gave a detailed analysis of the political situation and underlined the need to have an elected government in the city which has been under President's Rule since February 17 following resignation of the AAP government after 49 days in power.
BJP has been officially maintaining that it will take a decision on government formation after getting an invite from the LG.
Election Commission had on Saturday announced bypolls on November 25 in three Assembly constituencies of Delhi, but if the LG dissolves the Assembly, the bypolls will not take place.
