Manish Sisodia writes to Delhiites, says Centre is ‘scared’

New Delhi: In a bid to reach out to the electorate in the wake of a strong possibility of mini-elections following the disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs of Delhi Assembly, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia wrote an open letter to the people of Delhi, on Monday. He accused the BJP-led Central government of putting a spoke in the wheel of the development work carried out by the AAP government. He termed the disqualification as “BJP’s dirty politics”.

Twenty AAP MLAs were axed from the Delhi Assembly on Sunday after President Ram Nath Kovind approved the recommendation of the Election Commission (EC) because the “legislators held offices-of-profit”. These MLAs were appointed as parliamentary secretaries, who assist the ministers in their work, soon after the AAP government won a brute majority in the 2015 Assembly elections. The office of parliamentary secretaries is considered to be the office of profit, which a legislator cannot hold.

Mr Sisodia, however, maintained that none of the MLAs received any perks or pecuniary benefits for holding the parliamentary secretary positions and claimed that the disqualification was a “gross injustice by the Central government”.

Mr Sisodia shared the open letter on social media, in which he said the Central government has “imposed” bypolls in 20 Assembly constituencies and because of the election code of conduct, the development works will be effectively halted.

“In the next two years, the city government has planned to do a lot of development work. Wi-Fi, CCTV cameras, doorstep delivery of services, and home delivery of rations are among the planned works. The BJP is afraid of the good work being done. It is afraid of the growing popularity of CM Arvind Kejriwal,” Mr Sisodia wrote.

He added that few months after the bypolls, the Lok Sabha elections will be held.