AAP Signature campaign starts today
NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party will start a signature campaign on Wednesday to demand fresh elections in Delhi.
A letter signed by party chief Arvind Kejriwal, explaining why fresh elections are needed, will be distributed across all 70 constituencies. While asking for at least 50 seats to be able to run a government for the full five-year term, Kejriwal claimed his party was short of eight seats for a clear majority in the previous election and because Congress—which gave AAP outside support—made it impossible for the party to carry out any work, Kejriwal had to resign as chief minister.
"For the past several months Delhi has been under the President's rule. BJP does not want fresh elections because it believes that it will lose. Congress also does not want elections because it is now clear that the party will be wiped out from Delhi. AAP wants elections because it would like Delhi to have an elected government," Kejriwal said.
The campaign was announced by the party is a mega rally at Jantar Mantar last Sunday. It will start at 11am on Wednesday from the Patparganj constituency. "The venue of the launch programme is E-Block, West Vinod Nagar.
The party has decided to cover all 70 constituencies during the next fortnight. We intend to reach out to all registered voters and get their consensus on the matter. In the absence of an elected government, Delhiites are bearing the brunt of high power tariffs, inflation, poor water management etc. There is no reason for the lieutenant governor to continue with President's rule since no single party is in a position to form the government," said a senior leader.
The signatures will be used to put pressure on the Centre, President and the LG to dissolve Delhi assembly and order fresh elections.
AAP will also be raising the issue of the Centre's new notification, curtailing the powers of Delhi's anti-corruption branch that now prohibits the agency from investigating cases against central government employees. "On one hand, the central government is curtailing powers of a critical anti-graft mechanism and on the other hand, it is indulging in gimmicks like promising full statehood for Delhi," said a party spokesperson. more