Ready for polls, says Delhi Congress, asks Centre to dissolve House

New Delhi, Oct 19: Notwithstanding the party's defeat in Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly polls, Delhi Congress on Sunday challenged the BJP to hold fresh elections in Delhi immediately if it was confident of a Narendra Modi wave in the national capital.

Congress said that defeat in Maharashtra and Haryana will not affect the morale of party workers in Delhi and it was ready to face fresh elections in the city.

Delhi Congress chief spokesperson Mukesh Sharma demanded immediate dissolution of the Delhi Assembly and attacked the BJP government at the Centre for not coming out with a clear position on the political situation in the national capital.

"If BJP is so confident about the Modi wave then why has the Delhi Assembly not been dissolved.

We are ready for fresh elections in Delhi; morale of the party workers will not get affected by the outcome of Assembly polls in Maharashtra and Haryana.

"The issues there were different and we are confident of winning back the support of people of Delhi if fresh elections are held," he said. Sharma also ruled out the possibility of Congress extending any support again to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to form the government in the city.

"There is no question of extending support to AAP. We are preparing for fresh elections," he said. Congress has been demanding fresh elections in Delhi and had criticised Lt Gov Najeeb Jung's report to the President seeking permission to invite the BJP to form a government even though the saffron party does not have majority in the Assembly.

In his report last month, Jung gave a detailed analysis of the political situation in Delhi and underlined the need to have an elected government in the city which has been under President's rule since February 17 following the resignation of the AAP government which was in power for 49 days. BJP, along with its ally Akali Dal's lone MLA, has 29 MLAs in the Assembly and will require the support of five more legislators to prove its majority in the House.

BJP had won 31 seats in the 70-member House but the number of its MLAs came down to 28 as three party legislators -- Harsh Vardhan, Ramesh Bidhuri and Parvesh Verma -- resigned from the Assembly after they were elected to the Lok Sabha.

Following the resignation of the three legislators, the strength of the Assembly has come down to 67 and BJP will require the support of at least five more MLAs to reach the majority mark of 34 in the House.

AAP had won 28 seats in its debut Assembly elections and had later formed the government with outside support from Congress's eight MLAs.

The government led by Arvind Kejriwal had resigned on February 14 after the party's pet project, the Janlokpal Bill, could not be passed due to opposition from BJP and Congress.

PTI