BJP protests near AAP HQ, demands Kejriwal's resignation

NEW DELHI: Delhi BJP leaders and workers on Wednesday staged a protest near the AAP office on DDU Marg here demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over charges of corruption against the ruling party leaders.

Addressing the protesters, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva termed the AAP dispensation a ''government of criminals'' while citing names of former ministers currently in jail over corruption charges.

No reaction was immediately available from the AAP over the BJP's charges.

Referring to AAP convener Kejriwal's remark at an event on Tuesday to mark its national party status that the party workers miss Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, the Delhi BJP chief said, ''I want to assure Kejriwal that he will soon join Sisodia and Jain.'' ''There is a long list of AAP leaders who have been in jail over criminal charges and the BJP will expose the party by reaching out to every household in the city in the next three months,'' Sachdeva said.

He also claimed that two other Delhi ministers -- Gopal Rai and Kailash Gahlot -- were also under the scanner of probe agencies on corruption charges. ''If there is any industry that has made a progress in Delhi in the last eight years of the Kejriwal government, it is corruption, black marketing and theft,'' Sachdeva alleged, urging BJP workers to go door to door to ''expose'' the AAP.

Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, BJP's state general secretary Harsh Malhotra, and the party's Assam unit co-incharge Pawan Sharma also addressed the protesters.

The protesters dismantled the barricades and tried to move outside AAP head office on the DDU Marg but were detained by the police briefly.