Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Delhi unit on Wednesday sat on a dharna at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office to protest against the alleged “non-performance” of his government. Rebel Aam Aadmi Party legislator Kapil Mishra also accompanied them.
Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta and MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa said the sit-in would continue until the Kejriwal government fulfilled their demands, PTI reported. “Until the chief minister assures to provide water to the people, we will continue our protest,” Gupta said. “We have asked people to reach the chief minister’s office to raise the problem of water supply.”
Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and ministers Satyendar Jain and Gopal Rai have been sitting at Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal’s office for the last two days in protest against a strike by the state’s bureaucrats. Jain also began an indefinite hunger strike on Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha joined AAP leaders in their march to the Lieutenant Governor’s office. “If former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee were there, he would have directed the home minister to find a solution to the crisis, but the present dispensation is ‘sleeping’,” Sinha, a former Union minister, said, according to PTI. “It would be better for the country if a solution to the crisis in Delhi is found at the earliest.”
Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh said if the bureaucrats give a written assurance that they will end their strike and return to work, the party will appeal the chief minister and other ministers to end their sit-in at Baijal’s office. Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP, said the party will take out a candle light march on Thursday.
Earlier on Wednesday, BJP workers led by the party’s Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari protested at the Delhi Secretariat against the government’s failure to address water and electricity shortages. On Tuesday, Tiwari had labelled Kejriwal’s protest as a “mockery of democracy” and accused him and his ministers of “arm twisting” the lieutenant governor.
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