The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of being "anti-Dalit" and trying to prevent a candidate from the reserved category from becoming the mayor of Delhi.
The AAP's allegations came after the elections for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) were postponed on Thursday. The Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Delhi, V K Saxena, cited "unprecedented" circumstances where the chief minister is under judicial custody and cannot discharge his constitutionally obligated functions.
The AAP had fielded Mahesh Khichi for the post of mayor and Ravinder Bhardwaj for deputy mayor of the MCD.
Addressing a press conference, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said, "The BJP through its representative LG ensured that a candidate from the Dalit community does not become the mayor. This shows the anti-Dalit face of the party."
Singh alleged that the BJP does not want a Dalit to become the mayor of Delhi and that the party wants to end reservation.
The senior AAP leader said the reason for postponement stated by the LG is not tenable. He said that the LG had appointed a BJP councillor as the presiding officer of mayoral polls last year despite the chief minister saying that the seniormost councillor was eligible to become the presiding officer.
Singh also said that the LG had appointed 10 aldermen without considering the names sent by the chief minister and that the matter went to the Supreme Court.
He claimed that following the chief minister's arrest, the ministers have directly sent files to the LG and he has approved them.
There was no immediate reaction from the LG office or BJP to the Singh's charges.