DELHI IS SET FOR FRESH ELECTIONS
Elections for Delhi Assembly likely to be held in January or February
After an eight-month deadlock, the National Capital Territory of Delhi is all set to face fresh Assembly elections.
Soon after holding consultations with the leaders of the BJP, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, Lieutenant- Governor Najeeb Jung said on Monday that these three parties had expressed their inability to form government and he would send a report accordingly to President Pranab Mukherjee.
A highly-placed source said that Delhi may go for elections as early as mid-December.
The BJP reportedly took the decision to not try to form the Delhi government at its parliamentary board meeting here on Sunday night, which among others was also attended by Delhi state unit head Satish Upadhyay.
The state party chief, Mr Udhayay and Janakpuri MLA Jagdish Mukhi, who was a frontrunner for the chief ministership, met the lieutenant-governor on Monday morning and told him of the saffron outfit’s inability to form the government. The BJP and its allies are short of five MLAs to prove their majority in the 67-member Assembly.
A senior leader of the BJP said there were chances the Delhi Assembly polls might be held in January or February next year. “The BJP would prefer to go to polls in Delhi after analysing the results of the Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand polls,” he said.
After the BJP, it was Congress Legislative Party chief Haroon Yusuf who conveyed his party’s decision to the L-G. He said, “The Congress wants fresh elections. Under the leadership of Soniaji and Rahulji, we will put up a strong fight.”
AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal first declined to meet the L-G at 2 pm, saying he got the invitation for the meeting at 12.50 pm, and he was in no position to reschedule his prior commitments.
The AAP convener’s meeting was later rescheduled to 5.45 pm. Mr Kejriwal and AAP leader Manish Sisodia met the L-G and requested him to hold the elections in Delhi along with the Assemblies of Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand. The notification for fresh polls will be issued after the lieutenant-governor orders the dissolution of the Delhi Assembly.