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AAP leaders hold protest outside BJP’s Chandigarh office against Sisodia’s arrest
AAP leaders and workers staged a protest against the BJP in Chandigarh on Monday over the arrest of Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia by the CBI.
Chandigarh
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders and workers staged a protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Chandigarh on Monday over the arrest of Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Accusing the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre of using the central agencies to target political rivals, they claimed that the AAP’s growing popularity had unnerved the BJP.
Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on Sunday in connection with alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped excise policy in Delhi.
Several AAP leaders, including cabinet ministers Harpal Singh Cheema, Anmol Gagan Maan, Lal Chand Kataruchak, Brahm Shankar Jimpa, Laljit Bhullar, Harbhajan Singh ETO and Dr Inderbir Nijjar, and MLAs from across the state participated in the protest near the Punjab BJP office in Sector 37. They were carrying placards to show their support for their party colleague.
There was heavy police deployment at the protest site and later some protesters, including Cheema and Bhullar, were taken into preventive custody.
Raising slogans against the BJP for its alleged political plot against the AAP, the protesters termed the arrest of Sisodia “a dictatorial decision”.
Cheema accused the BJP government of using central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI to target the elected governments of its political rivals in the states. He alleged that Sisodia, who was working hard to provide good education to children of Delhi, was sent to jail in a “false case.”
The CBI arrested him under pressure from the Modi government, he charged, claiming that BJP’s aim behind the arrest of Sisodia was to stop the AAP and (Delhi chief minister) Arvind Kejriwal.
