BJP ignores Kejri’s dharna as Delhi crisis enters 2nd week

NEW DELHI:One of the senior-most BJP leaders had once said this about AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and his brand of “dharna/confrontation” politics: “The problem is he (Kejriwal) knows how to climb a tree but he does not know when and how to get down, which is why he ends up without an escape route in most situations.

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 18

One of the senior-most BJP leaders had once said this about AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and his brand of “dharna/confrontation” politics: “The problem is he (Kejriwal) knows how to climb a tree but he does not know when and how to get down, which is why he ends up without an escape route in most situations.”

More or less, this is what the BJP leadership has borne in mind while dealing with AAP brand of politics, including the current impasse that saw dramatic new developments as Chief Minister Kejriwal’s dharna against “strike” by Delhi bureaucrats entered second week.

The Delhi High Court pulled up the AAP government for holding the sit-in inside the Lieutenant Governor’s office as two of his ministers accompanying him in the protest — Manish Sisodia and Satyendra Jain — were shifted to hospital due to deteriorating health.

The BJP-led Centre, as it continued to “ignore” Kejriwal despite the massive political support pouring from several sides, except the Congress, continues to see this as an opportunity to “further expose AAP” as a leader said the BJP had long decided to not pay attention to Kejriwal.

This even as NDA allies Shiv Sena and JD(U) were perceived as standing by him and the Delhi Government.

JD(U) spokesman Pavan Varma tweeted: “While condemning the alleged misbehaviour against the CS, now that the CM has assured IAS officers regarding their safety, and appealed to them to resume their mandated duties, they must do so immediately, for the people of Delhi.”

In Mumbai, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut called as “unique” the movement led by the Delhi CM.

Though West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy, Kerala CM P Vijayan and Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu are actively backing Kejriwal, the BJP is seeing “missing” Congress from the picture as a favourable sign, signifying a break in the Opposition efforts to build a collective front against it in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.