Kejriwal, Delhi ministers call off sit-in protest outside LG Baijal's office

The deadlock between the Delhi government and the LG ended after several Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers attended the meetings called by the ministers on Tuesday.

AAP took to Twitter to say, "After waiting for 8 days for LG at Raj Nivas, getting confirmation from IAS Officers attending meetings called by ministers, On appeal of @msisodia to take Ration Revolution to ground level, Delhi CM @ArvindKejriwal returns back to prepare for further course of action."

Kejriwal along with his deputy Manish Sisodia, ministers Satyendra Jain and Gopal Rai, went on a sit-in dharna outside Baijal's office-cum-residence since June 11, demanding him to direct IAS officers to end their 'strike' and approve doorstep delivery scheme of his government.

Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, who was on a hunger strike protest at LG's office, was taken to the hospital, said Kejriwal on Monday.

Earlier Jain, who has been on a hunger strike too since Tuesday in connection with the ongoing tussle between the AAP government and Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, was hospitalised after his health condition deteriorated on Sunday.

Meanwhile, questioning the validity of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP's) sit-in dharna outside Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal's office, the Delhi High Court on Monday said such an agitation cannot be held at someone's office or house.

“Thing is that you’re sitting on a dharna. Who authorized them to sit on a dharna like this?” questioned the High Court.

“This can’t be called a strike. You can’t go inside someone’s office or house and hold a strike there,” said the court.

The observation by a bench of Justices A K Chawla and Navin Chawla came during the hearing of two petitions, one against the sit-in by Kejriwal and the others against the alleged strike by the IAS officers of Delhi government.

Four Chief Ministers- Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal, N Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh, Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala and HD Kumaraswamy of Karnataka- had extended their support to Kejriwal on Saturday.

The four CMs even requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to look into the deadlock during the NITI Aayog meeting on Sunday.

Kejriwal has thanked all the four CMs for extending support to their Delhi counterpart.

The Delhi CM tweeted, "On behalf of people of Delhi, I wish to thank all political parties n their leaders, who supported us in this fight. Spl thanks to Hon’ble CMs - Mamta di, Sh Kumaraswamy, Sh Chandrababu Naidu and Sh Vijayan"