'EC is afraid of central govt': Manish Sisodia on poll body not declaring date of MCD elections

New Delhi [India], March 9 : Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday attacked the Election Commission for not declaring the date of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) election and alleged that the poll body is afraid of the Central government.
Addressing a press conference in Delhi, Sisodia said "Election Commission is afraid of the Central government and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has pressurised them (EC) on its diktats."
"If EC starts to take decisions under the pressure of BJP then what does democracy mean? Today EC had a prefixed press conference wherein they were supported to announce the date for the MCD election. But before they do, they came under the pressure of the BJP," the Deputy Chief Minister accused the EC.
Sisodia further attacked BJP and said the party is anxious about losing the MCD election. "They (BJP) know Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will win over 250 seats out of 272. Therefore BJP is making an excuse for the unification of MCDs," he added.
"We (AAP) know BJP has no confidence to face Delhi's people. They are scared of losing the election, but why EC is scared of BJP?" he asked further.
"The Indian constitution has given all the power to EC to make their decisions independently but the way EC has knelt down to BJP, it is dangerous to the constitution and democracy," Sisodia said.
Earlier in the day, Delhi Election Commissioner SK Srivastava said it has deferred the announcement of Municipal Corporation election dates after the Central government raised a few issues that are yet to be legally examined by the Election Commission.
Addressing the press conference, the State Election Commissioner said, "I have received some communication from the central government at 4.30 pm, so I am not able to announce the dates right now"
"As central government raised few issues that are yet to be legally examined by us, we will not be able to announce MCD election dates as of now. We will take some more days. We have to conduct the elections before May 18," Srivastava added.
He further said that they were about to announce the dates, but now it will take another five to seven days to announce them.
"We are not postponing the elections. If at all unification of municipal corporations take place before May 18, then we have to examine the situation. That is why we need time as of now to seek legal opinion on it," said Srivastava.
There are 104 wards each in the North and the South Delhi Municipal Corporations while the East Delhi Municipal Corporation has 64 wards.