A day ahead of three-day Special Session of the Delhi Assembly to be convened to demand status of full statehood to national Capital, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) asserted that its demand for full statehood to Delhi is not new as several BJP leaders had in past and pressed for the same for the last five decades.
The AAP alleged that after assuming power at the Centre, the BJP has fallen back on its earlier stance and has turned a deaf ear to demand of full statehood for the last four years.
Addressing the mediapersons at party headquarters, AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said it is only within the ambit of the Central Government to grant full statehood to Delhi.
“Whenever a party rules at the Centre its opinion changes and it starts avoiding the question of statehood for Delhi,” said Bharadwaj.
“The BJP, which has been fighting for the statehood of Delhi for the last 50 years, has not even given a thought to handover the statehood to Delhi for last four years. It is to be noticed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his election campaign repeatedly announced statehood of Delhi,” he said.
“The people of Delhi had sent seven BJP MPs to the lok Sabha expecting them to fulfil the promise of statehood for Delhi. The AAP challenged the seven MPs of Delhi to bring out any discussion on Statehood for Delhi initiated by them in the parliament,” he added.
The AAP said former Chief Minister Madan lal Khurana expounded the need for a Delhi Atate on August 26, 1994. Also when Sahib Singh Verma was CM a draft Bill for full statehood of Delhi was prepared in 1998.
“The Delhi statehood bill was presented in Parliament in August 2003 as the Delhi State Bill by then Deputy Prime Minister lK Advani. Then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and BJP manifesto in 1999 lok Sabha election promised full statehood for Delhi. In 2011, VK Malhotra, then leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, suggested that BJP has been demanding full statehood for Delhi since 1956,” said AAP.
“On January 23, 2015, the Congress manifesto for Delhi said that the national Capital will become a full-fledged State, its residents will have cheap electricity and better security,” said the party.