Kejriwal-Baijal face-off: AAP seeks Prez’s intervention to end bureaucrats’ strike

Ananya Panda

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, JUNE 13

With the face-off between the AAP dispensation and LG Anil Baijal escalating on Wednesday the former today sought President Ram Nath Kovind’s intervention to end the impasse over the bureaucrats’ strike even as party leaders and workers marched from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Civil Lines residence towards Raj Niwas where Kejriwal and his three Cabinet colleagues have been camping since June 11 evening.

The AAP is in talks with various political parties for support and after RJD, TMC chief CM Mamata Banerjee backed her Delhi counterpart this evening urging the Modi government and LG to resolve the prevailing crisis in the national capital.

“@ArvindKejriwal, CM of Delhi is sitting in a dharna in LG’s office for the past few days in the capital city of the country. Elected CM must get due respect. May I appeal to the Govt of India and @LtGovDelhi to resolve the problem immediately so that people do not suffer,” Banerjee posted on Twitter.

Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said several political parties, including CPM, CPI and JDs, have also assured support to the Kejriwal government while adding that the party is also reaching out to other parties against the LG’s “dictatorship” in the city.

Speaker Ram Niwas Goel has also written to Baijal asking him to agree to the AAP government’s demands of directions to the officers to resume work and punish officers who have struck work since four months.

Goel also asked the LG to approve the proposal for doorstep delivery of rations. The Delhi’s development has been affected for the past few months due to a “well-planned and thought-out conspiracy” asking him to end the “undeclared strike” by officers. The strike is an insult to people of Delhi.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who joined his cabinet colleague Satendar Jain in indefinite fast, also wrote to Baijal who in turn today met Home Secretary Rajiv Gaube this afternoon.

Equating the crisis in the wake of run-ins between the Kejriwal government and Baijal with “emergency-like situation”, Sanjay Singh warned the Centre of a massive agitation if a solution is not found at the earliest.

Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, who recently quit the BJP, extended solidarity to the AAP government while addressing the protestors outside Kejriwal's residence before they began marching towards Baijal’s office which had heavy security presence.

Sinha criticised the Centre saying that it is “sleeping” and suggested it to find a solution to the Delhi crisis at the earliest. In his address, Sinha mentioned former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee saying if he would have asked the Union Home Mimister to sit with the elected Chief Minister of Delhi and find a solution to this impasse.