BJP MLAs marshalled out of Delhi assembly

After being ousted from the assembly, the BJP MLAs also staged a brief sit-in outside the chief minister’s office.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators on Thursday trooped into the well of the Delhi assembly, carrying posters and accusing chief minister Arvind Kejriwal of enacting anti-farmer policies, leading to all eight MLAs being marshalled out of the House on orders of speaker Ram Niwas Goel.

The BJP leaders came to the House wearing the traditional turbans of Delhi’s farmers. (ANI)

After being ousted from the assembly, the BJP MLAs also staged a brief sit-in outside the chief minister’s office.

Leader of the opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said, “The Kejriwal government is trying to strangle the opposition. For the fourth consecutive day, BJP MLAs were marshalled out. The issues of farmers I was going to raise was on the first place in the agenda under Rule 280 (special mention), but Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs created a ruckus and did not allow me to raise the issue.”

Earlier in the day, the BJP leaders came to the House wearing the traditional turbans of Delhi’s farmers. They then entered the well, flagging issues like the alleged low compensation given to farmers for land acquisition, no subsidy on agricultural appliances, Lal Dora limits not being increased, and the lack of hospitals, colleges or sewer lines in Delhi’s villages.

Bidhuri said, “The Kejriwal government is acquiring the agricultural land of farmers in Delhi at throwaway prices. On December 26, 2022, the land of the farmers of Nangli Razapur village was acquired at a cost of only ₹22 lakh per acre. This is open loot. Electricity is being given to farmers at commercial rates, and no subsidy is being given on fertilisers and agricultural plants. Kejriwal government has stopped the policy of giving alternative residential plots on the acquisition of farmers’ land, and neither permission is being given to install tube wells nor connection is being given for it.”

Amid the uproar, speaker Goel ordered the BJP legislators to be marshalled out.