BJP leaders call off protest at CM office, claim victory

Press Trust of India  |  New Delhi 

The BJP leaders, who had been on a hunger strike at the secretariat, ended their protest today after and his ministerial colleagues called off their sit-in at the Lieutenant Governor's office.

of Opposition in Assembly Vijender Gupta, BJP MLAs Manjinder Sirsa and Jagdish Pradhan, West MP Parvesh Verma, and rebel MLA sat on the dharna on June 13 demanding that Kejriwal and his ministers resume work and address the water crisis faced by Delhi people.

Barring Pradhan, all of them started hunger strike from June 15. Gupta had to be hospitalised earlier in the day due to falling health.

Sirsa, Verma and Mishra broke their fast in the presence of who visited them at the

Gupta claimed victory, saying the and his cabinet colleagues were forced to end their "meaningless" dharna due to "stern warning" of the and struggle of opposition leaders.

"Many congratulations to people of Delhi. Our struggle as well as stern warning from HC has borne fruit with CM @ArvindKejriwal ending his meaningless dharna & returning to work. Everyone except him was seen working in the today, including ministers," Gupta tweeted.

Earlier, Kejriwal called off his nine-day-old dharna at the office of Anil Baijal, demanding him to direct IAS officers to end their "strike" and approve doorstep ration delivery scheme.

The development came with Deputy CM and minister resuming work after they were discharged from hospital.

The IAS officers who had been boycotting meetings of government ministers today started appearing in the meetings called by Sisodia and other ministers.

The officers' protest was kick-started by an alleged attack by AAP legislators on during a late night meeting at Kejriwal's residence on February 19.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Tue, June 19 2018. 19:45 IST