AAP Leaders, Workers Camp outside CM’s Residence

 New Delhi: AAP leaders and workers camped outside the chief minister's residence here on Tuesday in support of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues who have been staging a sit-in at the Lieutenant Governor's office and asserted that they would continue the fight for the rights of the people without any compromise. Tents have been put up outside Kejriwal Civil Lines residence. 

This is a fight for the rights of the people of Delhi, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh told reporters outside the chief minister's residence. "At the instance of Narendra Modi, the Lt Governor has crippled Delhi government. We will not keep quiet now and fight till the last," Singh asserted. 

Flanked by senior party leaders Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi Marlena, the party MP said that they were prepared for a long-drawn battle over issues of full statehood, IAS officers' strike and the schemes of government, including doorstep delivery of ration, allegedly curtailed by the LG. 

"Modi is behind the crippling of Delhi government's functioning using the Lt Governor as a pawn." Singh said that he was in touch with opposition leaders such as D Raja of the CPI and Sitaram Yechury of the CPI(M) over the developments in Delhi. 

Singh also attacked former Delhi Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Sheila Dikshit over the full statehood issue. "She ruled for 10 years when Congress was at the Centre. Why was full statehood promised in their manifesto if they did not want it," he said. Bhardwaj said that the IAS officers of Delhi were on strike although they denied in a press statement on Monday. 

Citing rules, he said that even "slowing down" work and not attending meetings called by ministers was a form of strike. "Over a dozen show-cause notices and memos have been sent to the officers, but the situation is the same. They are shying away from openly admitting their strike because they will lose their jobs since rules do not permit it," he said. 

Marlena said that government works, including those related to education and pollution, were hampered due to the strike. Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, Labour Minister Gopal Rai and Health Minister Satyendar Jain spent the night at Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal's office to press for their demands including a direction to IAS officers to end their "strike" and action against officers who have struck work for "four months".