Congress trying to postpone Municipal polls: BJP

New Delhi, Jan 2 (UNI) The opposition BJP today alleged that the Congress Government in Delhi was trying to postpone the forthcoming municipal polls on the pretext of increasing the number of seats in the MCD house.

In a statement issued here, Leader of the Opposition in the MCD House Subhash Arya alleged that the Sheila Dikshit-led Delhi Government had referred to the legal department, a report on delimitation of MCD wards prepared by the Delimitation Committee set up by Delhi Lt Governor B L Joshi.

Further, he alleged that the state government has now called a special session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly to increase the number of seats to 272 or 300.

''The power to decide the number of wards vested with the Lt Governor. Moreover, Congress members were represented in the committee. Then why has the report of the committee not been accepted,''Mr Arya said and alleged that viewing her impending defeat, the Chief Minister put pressure on the Urban Development Ministry, where the report had been sent for notification, for referring it to the legal department.

''It is a clear cut attempt of murder of Democracy,'' he said.

On the alleged exercise by the state government to increase seats in the MCD House, Mr Arya said,''it is not understood how the Corporation with 300 members will function and sit for discussion.

Moreover, if the Government increases the seats, then the work of delimitation will have to be carried out again and will take a lot of time. The work of delimitation of 67 assembly seats was not even done in six months, i.e. from July 5 to December 6. Then, how will the delimitation of 272 seats be completed in one month.'' The polls to the MCD House are to be held before March 31 and the new House should be formed before the beginning of April.

UNI