Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched an attack against the BJP Thursday, accusing it of “hating†BR Ambedkar and wanting to do away with elections. He was addressing the Delhi Assembly during the ongoing budget session.
Kejriwal alleged that the BJP-run Centre had pressured the State Election Commission (SEC) to postpone MCD elections because it was scared of going up against a “small party (AAP)â€.
On March 9, the SEC had said that the polls would be held in April but had to issue a clarification within hours that they were not in a position to announce the dates as the Centre had written to them, saying they wanted to bring a Bill to unify the three MCDs.
Since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, where it lost all seven seats in Delhi, Kejriwal has refrained from directly attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Even before the 2020 Delhi Assembly polls, he had kept the focus on work done by his party.
Buoyed by his party’s landslide win in the Punjab Assembly polls, Kejriwal Thursday took aim at the PM, saying that claims about the “56 inch ka seena were falseâ€.
“In December, polls are due in Gujarat and people are saying BJP will lose. If they are about to lose, they will write to the EC 10 days before the polls saying we are unifying Maharashtra and Gujarat so polls should be deferred. Next time they will be set to lose Lok Sabha polls, they will write a letter saying that the parliamentary system is bad, and we are bringing in the presidential form of government, defer the polls. What is this drama, what is this nautanki? India is a democracy, the people will not tolerate this nautanki. They say they are the biggest party. We are the smallest. You are still scared? Kya kayar ho, yaar. If you have guts, fight polls. Kehte ho 56 inch ka seena hai, election karao nahi toh kurte ke neeche 56 inch ka seena nahi hai, jhoot hai,†he said.
Kejriwal also said that BJP believes elections are “badâ€. “We did not get any appreciation when we said that photos of Bhagat Singh and Babasaheb Ambedkar will be put in all government offices… I will tell you why the opposition, especially BJP, hates Ambedkar. He drafted the Constitution which established India as a democracy where people will vote and choose their government. But BJP doesn’t want polls, polls are bad according to them,†he said.
He said that there are murmurs that the BJP wants the MCD to function like the New Delhi Municipal Council, where members are nominated, not elected. “If it were up to them, they will stop all elections in the country. This is why they hate Ambedkar, they don’t want elections,†he said.
