BJP holds protest march after AAP workers take to streets

Anshita Mehra

New Delhi, March 26

The Capital was engulfed in protests on Tuesday as both the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) voiced their reactions to the arrest of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

AAP supporters gathered at Patel Chowk to protest Kejriwal’s arrest, while BJP members assembled at ITO demanding the CM’s resignation. Tensions escalated when Delhi Police detained 57 BJP members, including state president Virendra Sachdeva, for attempting to breach police barricades. Water cannons were deployed to disperse party workers marching towards the Secretariat.

Addressing demonstrators, Sachdeva criticised the legitimacy of Kejriwal’s governance, stating, “The Kejriwal government currently in power is totally illegal, confirming an old Hindi adage ‘chori aur seena joori’. The way Kejriwal is insisting on continuing as CM from jail, he is not only violating ethical political norms but also showing that he considers the government and the party his personal fiefdom.”

National secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa highlighted the irony of Kejriwal’s arrest, referencing his past remarks on evidence and arrests. Sirsa criticised Kejriwal’s apparent desperation for power, contrasting it with his earlier claims of indifference towards the CM’s position. He asserted that Kejriwal’s corruption would soon be exposed to the public.

He said, “This is the same Kejriwal who used to say that he least cares for the CM’s chair, but today he is seen completely obsessed with power and position. Today, every child in Delhi knows that Kejriwal is corrupt, and soon he will be fully exposed.”

MP Manoj Tiwari accused Kejriwal of neglecting his duties as CM and avoiding accountability by not overseeing any department. Tiwari alleged, “Its being said that Kejriwal sent a message from jail that we have to fix Delhi’s sewage system and water problem thus admitting that in nine years not much work has been done.”

MP Ramesh Bidhuri ridiculed Kejriwal’s pre-election boast of having 62 capable team members, claiming that their incompetence had been laid bare in his absence.