Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal’s office on Saturday allegedly denied permission to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to meet her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, reported NDTV.
Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, and ministers Gopal Rai and Satyender Jain have been at Baijal’s office since Monday evening, urging him to instruct Indian Administrative Service officers to end their alleged strike and return to work.
“I don’t think [honourable] LG can take such a decision on his own,” tweeted kejriwal. “Obviously, PMO has directed him [Baijal] to refuse permission. Just like IAS strike is being done at PMO’s instance.”
The Raj Niwas, the Lieutenant Governor’s official residence, is “no one’s personal property, instead it belongs to the “people of India”, Kejriwal added. “We live in a democracy,” he said. “Can PM deny [honourable] CMs of other states to meet CM of another state?”
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia also questioned the Prime Minister’s Office. “Is this undeclared emergency in Delhi?” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, Banerjee met Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at Andhra Pradesh Bhavan earlier in the evening. The four chief ministers wrote a letter to Baijal, seeking an appointment at 9 pm, according to ANI. They told the lieutenant governor that they wanted to discuss the impasse between him and Kejriwal.
Banerjee, who is in Delhi to attend Sunday’s NITI Aayog meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had earlier pledged her support to Kejriwal’s sit-in. She had asked the Centre and Baijal to “resolve the problem immediately”. “CM of Delhi is sitting in a dharna in LG’s office for the last few days in the capital city of the country,” she tweeted on Wednesday. “Elected CM must get due respect.”
The Delhi government claims that the bureaucrats have been on a protest since February, when two Aam Aadmi Party MLAs allegedly assaulted Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash during a meeting at Kejriwal’s residence. The IAS Association, however, has refuted this allegation and said that no officer is on strike. They have, however, admitted that the bureaucrats are not attending routine meetings called by ministers.
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