Excise policy: BJP holds protests

New Delhi: The Delhi BJP on Wednesday held protests at various parts in the city demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the now-scrapped excise policy of the AAP government.

The saffron party had on Tuesday termed the resignation of Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain from the Delhi Cabinet amid corruption allegations a "victory of truth and that of the party workers" while claiming that the chief minister will have to resign too. Hours before the news of resignation by the two ministers hit the headlines, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had said it would raise awareness on the "conspiracy" that was hatched to "toy" with the future of youths in Delhi by allowing "proliferation" of liquor vends. On Wednesday, BJP members held protests near the ITO roundabout, and demanded that the Delhi chief minister should resign. Delhi BJP's working president Virendra Sachdeva asked if according to Kejriwal, his ministers were "innocent", why the Supreme Court did not give them any relief and their resignations were accepted. In the last eight years, several ministers in the AAP government have resigned, most of them on "corruption charges".

Kejriwal should resign on moral grounds, he claimed. Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri also slammed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and alleged that "Kejriwal is the 'sutradhaar' (orchestrator) of the whole scam in the excise policy". "Why resignation was not taken from Satyendra Jain for the last nine months and it was suddenly taken from Manish Sisodia. This is the biggest scam and we will continue protesting till the chief minister resigns," he said. Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on Sunday over alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of liquor policy for 2021-22. Jain is currently in Tihar Jail in a money laundering case. Sisodia was sent to five-day custody of the CBI by a special court here.