Delhi House turns protest site as AAP, BJP spar over CM Arvind Kejriwal

High drama at Delhi assembly as AAP protests Kejriwal's arrest by ED. BJP demands resignation. Session adjourned amid chaos, to resume on April 1.

High drama unfolded at the Delhi assembly on Wednesday, when the House resumed after a 10-day break, as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators protested the arrest of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

AAP MLAs protest at the Delhi Assembly against the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday. (Arvind Yadav/HT photo)

The party’s MLAs stormed the well of the House and raised slogans, even as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators launched a counter-protest, demanding Kejriwal’s resignation.

The House was adjourned twice and is now scheduled to resume at 11am on April 1.

Before the scheduled sitting began, AAP MLAs including Delhi cabinet ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj were seen on the assembly premises wearing t-shirts with “Mai Bhi Kejriwal” imprinted on them, and groups of the AAP legislators protested in the assembly premises.

The session was also the first to be held after ED arrested Kejriwal in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy case. It was called to take up a discussion on the shortage of medicines in hospitals and Mohalla clinics in the city.

A day earlier, health minister Bharadwaj directed chief secretary Naresh Kumar to submit a report in the House listing the status of the availability of medicines and diagnostic tests in hospitals and Mohalla clinics.

The assembly sitting was scheduled to begin at 11am but started only half an hour later amid protests by AAP legislators. It was adjourned for 15 minutes after it convened. The House resumed at 11.50am but soon the AAP MLAs trooped into the well of the House.

Speaker Ram Niwas Goel’s repeated appeals to the MLAs to let the session proceed went unheard.

Later, the Speaker adjourned the sitting of the House till April 1.

“The assembly session has been called for the first time after the arrest of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, so we will raise our voices against his arrest,” said AAP minister Gopal Rai.

Bharadwaj said the AAP was against “dictatorship”. “We oppose the dictatorship of BJP. They are conducting raids against our people even though elections have been announced. Four of our top leaders are in jail. They have crossed the limits of dictatorship. They are trying to topple the AAP government, we will keep fighting,” said Bharadwaj.

Kejriwal has been remanded to ED custody until March 28. Later in the day, he challenged the arrest in the Delhi high court, which did not provide him relief. The court posted the matter for hearing on April 3.

After the House was adjourned, the leader of the Opposition in the Delhi assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, accompanied by other BJP MLAs, sat on strike in the assembly.

“Kejriwal is the most corrupt chief minister of Delhi. As the assembly convened, AAP MLAs instigated disturbances, yet no action was taken against them. How long CM Arvind Kejriwal will continue to run, he will have to resign... Kejriwal’s continued occupancy of the CM office undermines both moral and constitutional principles,” said Bidhuri.