Amid speculation in Delhi’s political circles that the Assembly poll would be advanced by a few months, Election Commission of India officials said this week that they had no plan to hold early election.
Asked about reports of the Delhi Assembly poll being held along with those for Haryana and Maharashtra in October, instead of the expected February 2020, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said they were “factually incorrect”.
Though the term of the Delhi Assembly is till February 22, 2020, Aam Aadmi Party leaders have expressed apprehension over the ECI advancing the election.
Recently, a “clerical error”, according to an ECI official, led to renewed speculation about early election in the Capital. A June 26 communication to the Chief Electoral Officers of Jharkhand, Haryana, Maharashtra and Delhi about “media monitoring and paid news” had been “inadvertently issued” to Jharkhand and Delhi, a corrigendum sent to the CEOs on Tuesday said.
AAP concern
Expressing concern, AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said: “Our government got elected for five years by the people. Each government has its road map of delivering its promises to the people. We have been hearing that a section in the Central government wants early election because they are nervous of our ongoing works like the CCTV project.”
Hitting out at the ECI, Mr. Bharadwaj said: “The Election Commission has lost much of its credibility in the last few years, so it’s difficult to believe in their neutrality.”
The BJP, however, dismissed AAP’s apprehensions. Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta said the Central government had nothing to do with the elections.
“AAP is afraid that they have not done any work and that they will not come back to power. They are engaging in gossip. Talk of the government advancing the election is completely baseless,” said Mr. Gupta.