Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was mobbed by Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members and presented bangles and roses at the New Delhi Railway Station on Thursday morning. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has dubbed the incident a conspiracy hatched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mr. Kejriwal, who was on the way to Ludhiana in poll-bound Punjab for a four-day visit via the Swarn Shatabdi Express, was intercepted by members of the Delhi BJP and the Delhi BJP Mahila Morcha at New Delhi Railway Station’s platform number 1 with the latter demanding, among other things, the ouster of his close aide Ashutosh from the AAP.
Delhi BJP Mahila Morcha president Kamaljeet Sehrawat said the move was also to protest against the goings-on in the AAP and the conduct of its MLAs. Senior AAP functionaries had already been warned about the Opposition’s intentions to gherao the Chief Minister.
As soon as he got off the train at the Ludhiana railway station, Mr. Kejriwal was again intercepted by protesters from the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal’s youth wing and the Opposition Congress’ women’s wing.
Youth Akali Dal leader Gurpreet Singh Gosha and other party activists tried to give bangles to Mr. Kejriwal while the Congress women wing’s Ludhiana district president Leena Tapria and party activists raised slogans of “Kejriwal Go Back”.
Mr. Kejriwal had to face another group of protesters outside the railway station.
“The police stood by and watched the pushing and the shoving. There were already television cameras which means this was pre-planned,” Mr. Sisodia tweeted.
BJP national secretary Sardar R.P. Singh accused the AAP of attempting to portray a “political public protest” as breach of security. “Before elections, those who used to call security expenses on politicians a burden on the exchequer today appear concerned about their personal security,” Mr. Singh said.
(With inputs from PTI)
