BJP stages protest near AAP headquarters over Delhi liquor ‘scam’

New Delhi: The Delhi BJP staged a protest in front of the AAP headquarters here on Thursday over the alleged liquor scam in the national capital and demanded the dismissal of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.

The demonstrators, including those from the “Adhivakta Prakoshth” (advocates’ cell) of the Delhi BJP, also burnt effigies of Sisodia during the protest in front of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) headquarters on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, near ITO.

“The (Arvind) Kejriwal government is trying to evade answers over the liquor scam, but we will not rest till Sisodia is sacked from the government,” said Delhi BJP vice-president Virendra Sachdeva.

Sisodia, who is also the city’s excise department in-charge, is refusing to recognise a liquor wholesaler who has, in a “sting video”, “exposed” the liquor scam of the AAP government, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader charged.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Delhi government’s Excise Policy 2021-22, has registered an FIR, naming Sisodia as an accused.

AAP leaders, including Chief Minister Kejriwal and Sisodia, have denied all the allegations. They have alleged that the BJP, which is “rattled” by Kejriwal’s rise as a challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, is trying to topple the Delhi government.

Different cells of the Delhi BJP, including those representing slum-dwellers, autorickshaw drivers, senior citizens, besides party workers from Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and the southern states, will stage a protest outside the houses of ministers in the AAP government on Friday.

Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta will lead the protest of the party’s “jhuggi-jhopri” (JJ) and hawkers’ cells outside Sisodia’s residence.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and Delhi BJP general secretary Dinesh Pratap Singh will lead the protest outside the chief minister’s residence, which will be staged by the workers from Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and the southern states, according to a statement issued by the saffron party.