Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for allegedly delaying municipal elections, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will quit politics if the BJP gets these polls conducted in a timely manner and wins them.
Kejriwal said that the BJP claims to be the largest political party globally but runs away from a small municipal election fearing defeat at the hands of the AAP. “I challenge the BJP to hold the MCD elections immediately if it has the courage. We (AAP) will leave politics if you (BJP) win,” he said. The Chief Minister alleged that the BJP first coerced the State Election Commission (SEC) to defer the municipal polls and is now on track to delay them for months through an amendment.
“The BJP’s shameless act of deferring elections is downright disrespectful of the sacrifice our martyrs made for this country and its constitution.
Is the Election Commission so fickle that the BJP can make it defer elections in the name of unification of corporations? Today the BJP is getting MCD elections cancelled; tomorrow it’ll do the same for State and national elections too,” he said.
Addressing the media at Delhi Vidhan Sabha premises, Kejriwal said, “It was on this very day that Bhagat Singh Ji, Sukhdev Ji and Rajguru Ji were hanged to death by the British. These martyrs made the supreme sacrifice to bring freedom to this nation. India won independence and made one of the strongest Constitutions in the world. The Constitution gave the public the power to elect governments of its choice, who run as the people say. But for the last few days, what has transpired because of the BJP is nothing short of a travesty.”
The Delhi CM further said, “The way the BJP is coercing institutions like the EC for political gains is a direct attack on this democracy.
I appeal to the Prime Minister with folded hands — in the future there may not be a BJP or an AAP, there may be no Modi or Kejriwal for the public to see. Our parties don’t matter, we don’t matter.
This country is all what matters. Our social fabric is what matters. Our democracy is what matters.” Replying to Kejriwal, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that the statements of Chief Minister and other AAP leaders in context of municipal elections reflect their political frustration and lust for power in civic bodies. “The level of the statements of the Chief Minister and other AAP leaders shows that they have no concern for improving municipal services or betterment of service conditions of civic employees. The AAP leaders are just hungry for power at civic bodies,” he added. Kapoor further said that the Centre is trying to improve the financial health and working of the civic body by unifying the three Municipal Corporations.