EC may advance Assembly polls to October, says AAP
Due in Feb 2020, but it may be held four months earlier'.
NEW DELHI: There is a buzz in the political circles that the Election Commission could prepone the Assembly elections in Delhi, which are otherwise due in February 2020, Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said on Friday. “Very strong buzz — EC will hold Delhi elections along wid other states in October itself, four months before end of present assembly’s tenure. Can EC do that? Can EC curtail the period of duly elected assembly?” Mr Bharadwaj tweeted.
In the 2015 Assembly elections, AAP had won 67 of the 70 Assembly seats in Delhi. BJP was able to win only three seats and Congress, which ruled the city for 15 years, was not even able to open its account. If the EC decides to prepone the Assembly elections, there are indications that the election results could go in favour of BJP, which recently won all the seven Lok Sabha seats by record margins in the national capital.
Notably, the division of votes between Congress and AAP had gone in favour of BJP in the municipal polls, in which the party won 181 of the 272 wards. BJP had even replaced its sitting councillors with fresh faces in the municipal polls.
A local AAP leader said that the holding of the Assembly elections before the scheduled time could again benefit BJP as the party will not get ample time to reach out to its voters, who had voted it to power in the 2015 elections.
BJP won the Assembly polls in 1993 under the leadership of late Madan Lal Khurana. Later on, Congress won three successive elections under the leadership of Sheila Dikshit. But in 2013, AAP managed to win 28 seats, Congress grabbed eight, and BJP won 31 seats. AAP formed government with the support of Congress, which lasted for 49 days.