Saurabh Bharadwaj alleges conspiracy to halt mayoral polls, oust AAP from Municipal Corporation of Delhi

New Delhi: The BJP-led Centre is hatching a conspiracy to halt the mayoral polls and oust AAP from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged on Thursday.

The minister also accused Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar of flouting the rules for nominating a presiding officer to hold the mayoral polls by bypassing him.

"The proposal to nominate the presiding officer was secretly sent to the Lt Governor, bypassing me. I wrote to the Lt Governor to return the file, stating that it was sent to him directly by flouting the rules," the AAP leader said at a press conference.

"Yesterday (Wednesday), again, I wrote to the chief secretary and asked him under which rules he bypassed me and sent the file. I sent a copy (of the letter) to the Lt Governor. The secretary said the matter is with the Lt Governor and he will take action on it," the urban development minister claimed.

There was no immediate reaction available from the Lt Governor's Office or the chief secretary's office.

The AAP leader also raised concern over the mayoral polls, scheduled for Friday, saying he is yet to receive the file for appointing the presiding officer.

"We have heard the Lt Governor is on a tour of Kerala while important works are stalled in Delhi. It appears that the BJP is trying to hatch a conspiracy to halt the elections and oust Delhi's elected government from the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi)," Bharadwaj alleged.

"This time, deliberately, the chief secretary bypassed the urban development minister (Bharadwaj) because they knew the chief minister is not there. So they directly sent the file to the Lt Governor," he added.

The AAP government, through the Chief Minister's Office, routes the file having the name of the presiding officer to the Lt Governor for his nod.

With Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in judicial custody till May 7, the issue had been hanging fire.

AAP governs the MCD with 137 councillors in the 250-member House while the BJP has 105.