AAP petitions for fresh polls

A delegation of Aam Aadmi Party MLAs led by national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday met President Pranab Mukherjee and requested him to dissolve the Delhi Assembly and get fresh polls conducted at the earliest.

While pushing its case for another election, the party, in a memorandum submitted to the President, alleged that the BJP was trying to engineer defection in the AAP and has approached 15 of its MLAs in the last few days.

“The BJP has been luring them with ministerial berths, properties and cash ranging from Rs.10 crore to Rs.20 crore. When this did not work, our MLA from Shalimar Bagh, Bandana Kumari, was threatened. She has already filed a police complaint in this regard,” Mr. Kejriwal said in the memorandum.

The former Delhi Chief Minister argued that people had high hopes from the BJP government, but they were disappointed as the prices of almost all commodities have been rising.

“In the last one month, however, the hopes of the people have been shattered because the prices of almost all the commodities have increased. No steps have been taken to check corruption.”

Stating that the BJP was scared of conducting elections due to its decreasing popularity in the wake of the skyrocketing price rise, the AAP leader added: “The issue of price rise has dented the BJP’s popularity, due to which it does not want elections in Delhi in the near future. The party is afraid that if elections are held in near future, it will lose very badly. Therefore, it is making desperate attempts to poach MLAs from other parties.”