New Delhi, Mar 11 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday accused the Central government of putting pressure on the Election Commission to defer m cipal corporation elections in the national capital and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rescind the decision. BJP retorted slamming the Kejriwal government of running the MCD by not paying dues worth Rs 13 thousand crores. Kejriwal in a video message said the Delhi Election Commission had called a press conference to announce the dates for the M cipal Corporation polls on Wednesday but did not announce it saying the Centre was planning to fy the three corporations. “It is perhaps for the first time since independence that the on government has written to the poll panel to defer an election. The BJP has been in the Center for 7-8 years. If they wanted to fy the MCDs, why did they not do it earlier? They remembered it an hour before the election was to be announced,” he said. “ fying the m cipal corporations was an excuse, the intention was to defer the elections,” Kejriwal said, adding that the BJP feared a defeat in the battle for Delhi’s m cipal corporations. “I fold my hands and appeal to the Prime Minister… Governments will come and go, we are not important, parties are not important, the country is important. Pressuring the Election Commission to defer the elections weakens the institution. “We have to protect the country, we cannot allow the institutions to be weakened,” he said. “I request you do not cancel the elections, it is a big threat to democracy.” Responding to the allegation, on Minister Smriti Irani said, “Kejriwal is criticising PM Modi because he does not want to support reform in MCD.” She said the three corporations had asked the government to initiate reforms last year. “Kejriwal did not pay dues of Rs 13 thousand crore to the corporations in Delhi which affected their work. Today he attacked the election commission. I request him not to stop the work of the most important t of democracy, corporations which work at grassroots level… Pay the dues of Corporations at the earliest if you support democracy,” she said. Delhi BJP also slammed the Delhi government for not paying the dues to the corporations. “The party is never afraid of elections, if you are scared then you are yourself Arvind Kejriwal because there is anger among the public due to your corrupt liquor policy,” Delhi BJP said in a tweet. Kejriwal meanwhile also said that fying the corporations does not require a deferment of the elections as it can be done after the elections too. The Delhi Election Commission was to announce the date for m cipal elections on March 9. However, at the press conference, State Election Commissioner of Delhi, S K Srivastava, said the dates will be announced in the next few days. He said the poll panel received a comm cation from the Central government at 4.30 pm on the issue of merger. There are 104 wards each in the North and the South Delhi M cipal Corporations. The East Delhi M cipal Corporation has 64 wards. AO SHK1851