AAP legislators meet President, demand fresh election in Delhi

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal accompanied by AAP legislators Thursday met President Pranab Mukherjee to demand immediate dissolution of the assembly and fresh elections in Delhi.

Kejrwal was accompanied by all 26 party legislators and also submitted a letter to the president.

In the letter, the Aam Aadmi Party chief noted that the Delhi Assembly was put under suspended animation in February this year, and it has been almost five months now and none of the three parties (AAP, Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress) present in the state assembly, have shown any inclination to form the government.

"BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) are afraid that if elections are held in near future, they would lose very badly. Therefore, BJP is making desperate attempts to poach MLAs from other parties," said Kejriwal in the letter.

On earlier occasions too, the AAP has accused the BJP of luring its legislators to join the party to help it form the government.

With three BJP legislators being elected to the Lok Sabha, the strength of the Delhi assembly has come down to 67. The BJP's strength has also come down to 28 from the earlier 31.

Delhi has been under president's rule since Feb 17 after Kejriwal resigned as chief minister over the stalling of the Jan Lokpal bill in the assembly.