The Union Cabinet on Tuesday gave its nod to the proposal for dissolution of the Delhi Assembly. With this, decks have been cleared for holding elections in Delhi, which is under President’s rule since February 2014.
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The Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the Home Ministry’s proposal for dissolution of the 70-member Delhi Assembly. The proposal was moved by the Union Home Ministry on the basis of Delhi Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung’s report which recommended dissolution of the Assembly after his discussions with the Aam Aadmi Party, BJP and the Congress. All parties were ostensibly in favour of fresh elections.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh, however, was not present in the meeting as he is travelling abroad.
The Union Cabinet’s approval will now be referred to the President who will dissolve the Assembly. Following this, the Election Commission will scrap by-elections to three Assembly seats in Delhi and order fresh polls in the Capital.
The polls will have to be held before February next.
The Delhi BJP has called a meeting of its MLAs later in the afternoon to discuss its polls strategy, while the AAP said that the BJP is devoid of leadership in Delhi and this was the reason it was avoiding elections.
With corruption as the main plank, the AAP had won 28 seats in the December 2013 polls. The BJP won 32 seats and facing anti-incumbency, the Congress was a poor third with 8 seats. President's rule was imposed after the AAP, which had formed the government with outside support from the Congress, quit after 49 days.
Finally, after eight months of President’s rule, the parties have admitted that none is in a position to form a government in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
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