New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday made a major announcement ahead of the Delhi mayor election, saying it will not contest the election this time. Atishi, who was a minister in the previous Delhi cabinet, alleged that the BJP has resorted to “arm-twisting” to get to power, of falsehood and cheating, and of dividing other parties, as well as luring other elected representatives to jump ship.
Atishi said that the BJP resorts to “bribery and coercion” to form governments after losing elections and claimed that the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) elections were held along with Gujarat elections to hamper the electoral process. For the last two and a half years, the BJP has conspired to steal AAP councillors who were elected with votes the AAP fought for. Her party doesn’t adopt such tactics, she added. The AAP does not “sell and purchase” representatives, so it will not contest the mayoral election this time, she said. The emphasis in that discussion now is on providing a robust counter to the BJP’s “triple-engine” government.
Also, referring to the need of having 67 seats to contest in the election, AAP’s Delhi president Saurabh Bhardwaj said that since the party does not have the required number of seats, it will not contest the election. AAP, he pointed out, was not in the business of horse trading. “The BJP should run off with triple-engine ki sarkar” (with the BJP controlling the central government and the Delhi governments and MCD).
He also took potshots at the BJP, saying it had failed to resolve the matters related to garbage heaps, traffic jams, increasing crime rates, growing pollution and waterlogging in the national capital. He urged the BJP to be accountable and deliver for Delhi’s people.
After the AAP announcement, BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor attacked the party. He claimed it was pretending to “withdraw” from the mayoral fight while acting as if AAP had lost its MCD majority. Under AAP rule, MCD’s administrative and maintenance work was stalled and now the party is trying to play martyrs, Kapoor said.
Kapoor compared the current scenario to that of the Delhi Assembly elections, where a return to a Delhi-Congress alliance was considered impossible, with AAP and Congress contesting separately, and predicted AAP’s pre-poll alliance with Congress in subsequent elections.
The announcement was made just a day before the last date for filing nominations, April 25. This is for the elections for MCD mayor and deputy mayor. Both had the local news or tabloids busy out with cloak and dagger for potential mayoral contenders. For AAP to suddenly not also be part of the race was astonishing — particularly as this data was coming on the tabletop even whilst each AAP and BJP had been anticipated to announce their mayoral prospects on that identical day.
AAP has governed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi for three years now. AAP, on its first anniversary, took the reins of the MCD by electing Shaili Oberoi and Ali Mohammad Iqbal as mayor and deputy mayors. During the second year, these leaders continued in their positions. Mahesh Kumar Kheechi took the role of mayor in the third year with a reserved seat.