Alleging that an ‘unannounced emergency’ has been clamped in Delhi to manipulate poll outcome, the BJP on Tuesday accused the Delhi Police and the Delhi Government for conniving against it in the poll-bound national Capital.
It slammed the removal of Narendra Modi’s hoardings from authorised sites and transfer of SHOs in the city. The party also charged the police with being hand-in-glove with Delhi Government in harassing Opposition workers.
The BJP national spokesperson Meenakshi lekhi, accusing the UPA Government of reeling under ‘Modi phobia’, questioned the move of transferring 40 SHOs of various police stations across the city though only 19 were required to be shifted and accused the Election Commission (EC) of failing to do its duty to ensure free and fair electoral process.
The party alleged that the rest 21 SHOs were shifted to manipulate the result of the election. The BJP sought revocation of their transfer orders and threatened to move court if the Delhi Election Commission did not pay heed to its demand. “An unannounced form of emergency is prevalent in Delhi to manipulate the outcome of election. It is in this context that the transfer of 21 SHOs needed to be taken up immediately and if the Election Commission does not take action immediately, we will go to the court,” lekhi said at Delhi BJP office on Tuesday.
When asked about BJP’s complaint, an official of Delhi Election Commission said it was looking into the issue. Claiming that Delhi has virtually turned into a Police State where BJP workers are being harassed, she also sought to attack the Election Commission for not taking required steps to ensure free and fair polls. “The Government has chosen to make these appointments for directly manipulating the outcome of the election. The Election Commission is expected to take action against the Government for such decisions by invoking principle of being an independent institution. The failure to take such decision shows the collusion between the police, Congress and the Election Commission,” she alleged. lekhi said the objective of the ‘illegitimate act’ of transferring the 21 SHOs was to gain electoral mileage.
“We have registered a complaint with Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev. If the Commission does not take action, then we will be forced to charge it of bias,” she said. “What is banned is defacement. One cannot deface public property under the law. But on an approved site, when I paid my dues, I cannot be stopped. Under the garb of Defacement Act, they are virtually stopping us from running our campaign. Our workers are being harassed by police. They are being detained for four to five hours in the police station,” she said.