BJP to protest overnight for sacking of Sisodia and Satyendar Jain

NEW DELHI:  Hours after the AAP announced a night-long protest at the Delhi Assembly premises, the BJP on Monday said its MLAs will also hold an overnight protest there to demand the sacking of ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain over alleged corruption.

In a BJP statement, Leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said that the party MLAs have been forced to sit on a dharna since they were not heard in the assembly.

All of the BJP’s eight MLAs were not part of the proceedings of the Delhi Assembly’s special session on Monday and Friday as they were marshalled out of the House on both days. During the House proceedings earlier in the day, AAP legislators trooped into the well and demanded Saxena’s resignation, besides a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The BJP said its MLAs were “expelled unconstitutionally” from the Delhi Assembly again on Monday and “no issue was allowed to be raised”. “The meeting of the BJP legislature party was held under the chairmanship of Leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and it was decided that the BJP MLAs would sit on a dharna near the statues of Shaheed Azam Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Sukhdev inside the assembly premises.  

"This protest will continue throughout the night,” it said. Bidhuri alleged that Deputy CM Manish Sisodia was involved in the multi-crore liquor “scam” and noted that Jain is in jail in a money laundering case.