NEW DELHI:
Amidst escalating tensions ahead of the mayoral election in Delhi, senior AAP leader and Urban Development Minister, Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj, has sounded the alarm over alleged attempts by the BJP-led central government to manipulate the electoral process. Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj asserts that the BJP, fearing electoral defeat, is actively obstructing the democratic process. Highlighting concerns, he reveals that the Chief Secretary bypassed the elected Delhi government by routing the presiding officer’s appointment file directly to the absent Lieutenant Governor (LG). Drawing parallels to past incidents in Chandigarh, the. Delhi Urban Development Minister underscores the urgency of the situation as the election looms without a designated presiding officer. Despite his appeals, no action has been taken, raising doubts about the election’s LG and central government’s integrity.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, senior AAP leader and cabinet minister Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj said that a few days ago, the whole country had seen how the BJP tried to make its own mayor by rigging the votes in the Chandigarh mayoral election and the main character who emerged in that entire conspiracy was the presiding officer of that election, Anil Masih. Everyone knows very well that the main mastermind behind the theft of votes is the presiding officer, who conducts the entire election.
The Senior AAP Leader further added, “We have also seen that when the municipal elections were held in Delhi and the AAP emerged as the single largest party with 134 municipal councilors, and the BJP was far behind the AAP with 105 municipal councilors, despite that, the BJP tried to make its own mayor in Delhi by cheating. Since the beginning, the rule has been that the most senior municipal councilor is chosen as the presiding officer for the mayoral election. But in this election of Delhi, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi appointed a Municipal Councilor of the BJP as the Presiding Officer and tried to rig the election of the Delhi Mayor.”
“Tomorrow, once again, the Mayor’s election is to be held in Delhi. It is a fixed procedure that the person who is the current Mayor will be appointed as the Presiding Officer for the upcoming Mayoral elections. This procedure is a constitutional tradition that has been going on for decades. But I have to say this with great sadness that the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi appointed by the BJP-ruled Central Government is trying to break this decades-old constitutional tradition,” he added.
Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj mentioned that according to the rules, the file for appointing the Presiding Officer is sent by the Chief Secretary to the Urban Development Minister and from the Urban Development Minister’s office it is then sent to the Chief Minister’s office and from the Chief Minister’s office it again goes to the Lieutenant Governor’s office. This time, bypassing that procedure, the Chief Secretary has sent that file directly to the Lieutenant Governor’s office without the permission of the Urban Development Minister. “I want to ask the BJP-ruled Central Government and the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, why is this theft being done? What conspiracy is being hatched behind the scenes?” He questioned.
Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj told the journalists, “On 23 April 2024, I wrote a letter to the Lieutenant Governor and informed him that this file has been secretly sent to the office of the Lieutenant Governor by Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar, this file should be returned to me, but the office of the Lieutenant Governor has not returned that file to me yet. He said that yesterday i.e. on 24 April 2024, I also wrote a letter to Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar and asked under which law you have got this power, that you can bypass the elected government of Delhi and send the file directly to the Lieutenant Governor. I have also sent a copy of this letter to the Lieutenant Governor. In response to this letter, the Chief Secretary has said that we have now sent this matter to the Lieutenant Governor, now the Lieutenant Governor will take a decision on it. The Chief Secretary could not tell any such rule or law, under which he bypassed the elected government and sent this file directly to the office of the Lieutenant Governor.”
“Today is 25th April 2024 and it is already 3 pm, but we have not received any file regarding the presiding officer yet. I have heard that the Lieutenant Governor has gone to Kerala. It’s a very important election, scheduled to be held tomorrow. In such a situation, the Lieutenant Governor going to Kerala, it seems that the BJP-ruled central government is again hatching a new conspiracy to disrupt this mayor election, so that the mayoral elections in Delhi do not take place. The file has been stopped due to fear of losing the election so that the elections cannot take place,” Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj concluded.
