AAP MLAs to meet President Pranab Mukherjee, want fresh elections in Delhi

NEW DELHI: All 27 MLAs of Aam Aadmi Party are scheduled to meet President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday evening and ask him for an immediate dissolution of the Delhi Assembly.

The request for the meeting was put in after the party's MLA from Shalimar Bagh, Bandana Kumari, was allegedly given a death threat by a person she accused of being a BJP worker, said sources.

"AAP has been demanding fresh elections in Delhi since its resignation from government in February 2014. In fact, the party approached the Supreme Court against the lieutenant governor's decision to keep the government in suspended animation in stead of dissolving it since neither AAP nor BJP had the numbers to form government.

On Tuesday evening, one of our MLAs was given a death threat by a BJP worker after she refused to entertain his pleas to break away from AAP and join BJP.

This is being done in light of the death threat and the frequent attempts at horsetrading by BJP workers in the recent past," said a senior leader.

The next date of hearing at SC is July 4. Till now, BJP has not made any formal declaration on whether it wants fresh elections in Delhi.

AAP claims it has clips of footage showing how BJP workers have been approaching its MLAs to break them away from the party.

Kumari filed a complaint in the Shalimar Bagh police station, accusing one Sanjay Paliwal of threatening her and her family with dire consequences after she refused to join BJP.

"He asked her to join BJP and offered her a ministerial berth.

However, when Kumari refused and asked him to leave, he threatened to kill her and her family," said Gopal Rai, a senior AAP member.

Kumari has submitted the CCTV footage from her office to back her claim.

What is most interesting is that Paliwal claims to be a former AAP member, a claim that AAP does not deny, and said Kumari had approached him to mediate with BJP.

"She said there were a few more MLAs who wanted to move to BJP. I refused to get involved in this and walked away. Later I found out that she had filed a police complaint," he said.

"We have received a complaint from AAP leader and are verifying the contents of it. The CCTV footage from the office has also been recovered and we are analysing it for further proof.

The accused man has been questioned during which he claimed to be a member of the AAP. An FIR will be registered once we verify the allegations against the accused," said A Koan, additional DCP, northwest district.