Saffron party finalizing its strategy to stake claim to form next government in Capital our effort is to form a government by cashing on the disgruntlement of AAP legislators: A BJP leader
BJP is finalizing its policy to stake claim to form the next government in Delhi.
The Capital has been under President’s rule since February 14, when the 49-day-old minority AAP government supported by Congress resigned over its failure to pass the Jan Lokpal bill in the assembly.
After the AAP failed to win even in a single seat from Delhi in the Lok Sabha elections, a jovial BJP wants to grab the opportunity to take control of power in the Capital.
If no party is in a position to form a government within six months of President’s rule, re-election is the only constitutional option.
According to a senior BJP leader no party wanted a re-election at this stage. “Our effort is to form a government by cashing on the disgruntlement of AAP legislators,” he said.
Arvind Kejriwal, AAP national convenor had alleged in a recent interview to a TV channel that BJP was trying to kickback eight of his party MLAs.
“BJP people are contacting our MLAs. They have contacted our eight MLAs in the last four-five days and they are trying to break them away,” Kejriwal had charged.
A BJP leader denied that they were making an effort to wean away AAP legislators, like Operation Kamal in Karnataka.
However, the BJP leader said, “There is widespread discontent among AAP cadres including the legislators. They are anyway on the verge of revolt. Many of them may resign from the assembly. Once they resign, the strength of the assembly would come down, and the majority based on the reduced total strength of the assembly would be lower,” the senior BJP leader explained.
BJP which has strength of 32 in a 70-member House is the largest party but refused to form the government after the Delhi assembly polls last December, as it did not have a majority.
AAP, with 28 seats, had formed the government with outside support of Congress. Going by calculations, if 10 MLAs from AAP/Congress quit, BJP would only need 31 seats to stake claim to form a government?
BJP is looking forward to win the by polls that would be held to seats that would fall vacant, based on its recent electoral wins to retain the majority.
The BJP leader said there was another possibility too: “If MLAs are expelled from a party, then they remain in the assembly and free to support any party. The anti-defection law does not come into play then,” he said.
Mentioning the example of VK Binny, who was elected from AAP, and since expelled from the party. Binny continues to be a MLA and can support a BJP government.