AAP announces it will march to PM house next week

Rai said that the party will mark Shaheedi Diwas on Saturday with an oath-taking ceremony at the Shaheedi Park near ITO against “dictatorship”

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Delhi convener Gopal Rai on Friday announced that the party will hold a series of protests in collaboration with other Opposition parties, apart from taking oaths and burning effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the coming days to continue the party’s “struggle against the arrest of the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.”

Delhi minister Atishi at the protest on Friday. (Sachit Khanna/HT Photo)

The party has also decided not to celebrate the festival of Holi, which falls on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced a counter protest at Rajghat on Saturday at 10.30am where Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva along with party workers will take oaths to fight corruption.

Rai said that the party will mark Shaheedi Diwas on Saturday with an oath-taking ceremony at the Shaheedi Park on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg near ITO against “dictatorship”. Senior AAP leaders like Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, along with Delhi ministers, MLAs and councillors will participate in the event held before the statues of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, Rai said, adding that members of the INDIA bloc have also been requested to participate.

Rai added that the supporters will burn effigies of the dictator PM across the city on Sunday. “The effigies will be burnt at assembly level across the city at 11am on Sunday. Kejriwal has been arrested unjustly and we have decided to adjourn Holi celebrations. We will meet people and convey the message that it is now our responsibility to save the country. On March 26, people from across Delhi will gherao the Prime Minister’s residence,” Rai added.

Rai said that representatives of the INDIA bloc met the Election Commission on Friday to raise concerns over the arrest and the group has decided to embark on nationwide protests jointly.

“We have argued that the arrest of an elected chief minister and head of a national party is a violation of the model code of conduct. We will also announce a joint protest with other members of the INDIA bloc. BJP has arrested an elected CM out of pride and this battle will continue across the country,” he added.

Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday night for his involvement in the state’s controversial 2021-22 excise policy. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders and workers were detained and whisked away in buses from outside the party’s headquarters at Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Marg, ITO Chowk, and from near the Rouse Avenue Court — areas that were turned into a fortress with the deployment of nearly 800 security personnel and iron barricades.

Rai said that Kejriwal’s family members will take a call on whether they would want to join the protests. “The chief minister’s mother has just arrived from the hospital. She is unwell and the family is also busy taking care of her. They will decide when to take part in the protests,” he added.

Referring to the AAP’s protest plans, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said it was surprising to see how AAP, which could not gather enough people for a small protest at ITO on Friday, has released a four-day protest schedule.

“It is an irony that AAP leadership and MLAs have no ground connect with people of Delhi nor they have any cadre as a result of which they failed to mobilise any protest,” said Kapoor.