Delhi elections unlikely to be held with LS polls

NEW DELHI: The elections to the Delhi assembly are unlikely to be held with this summer’s Lok Sabha polls, a demand Aam Admi Party (AAP) has gone to the Supreme Court with.

On Monday, the top court issued a notice to the Centre on an AAP petition seeking directions to the lieutenant governor to dissolve the Delhi assembly and hold fresh elections along with the Lok Sabha polls that are likely to be held in April-May.

AAP’s plea for simultaneous polls may become infructuous as the court proceedings on its petition are expected to take time and the Election Commission (EC) is likely to issue notification for the Lok Sabha polls in the first week of March. AAP’s petition will now be heard on March 7.

As per rules, the EC has to hold elections within six months of the governor/ lieutenant governor informing it about the dissolution of the assembly. The party, which has 31 seats, doesn’t want elections now as it fears that AAP may walk away with more than 40 seats. May stake claim to govt if it does well in the Lok Sabha elections

Thinks the public sentiment is

Delhi was put under President’s rule and the assembly kept under suspended animation after Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet resigned on February 14, 49 days after coming to power.

A bench of justice RM Lodha and justice Dipak Misra gave 10 days to the Centre to respond to AAP’s petition. AAP has challenged February 16 notification imposing President’s rule in the Capital.

The top court is to examine the constitutional validity of the President’s decision to keep the assembly under “suspended animation” with it and wants to capitalise on it to increase its tally of 28. Believes if elections are held now, it can come to power on its own

Reduced to eight seats, it wants to delay assembly elections as much as possible to regain some of the lost ground

despite no party being in a position to form the government.

The bench, however, declined to issue notices to the Congress and BJP, saying, “This is a constitutional issue... we don’t want any debate or contest on politics.”

On behalf of AAP, senior advocate Fali Nariman argued the President could not have kept the assembly under suspended animation, particularly when both the BJP and Congress had expressed inability to form a government after the resignation of Kejriwal.

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