New Delhi: Four non-BJP chief ministers on Saturday sought Delhi L-G Anil Baijal’s permission to meet him to submit a representation on Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his three cabinet colleagues’s sit-in at his office.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerejee and her Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka counterparts — Chand-rababu Naidu, Pinarayi Vijayan and H.D. Kumaraswamy — wrote a joint letter to Mr Baijal for the permission to meet him.
“All of us would like to make a representation to you with respect to the issues concerning the Hon’ble chief minister of Delhi Shri Arvind Kejriwal. Please grant us a meeting slot on Saturday as we are waiting. We request you to give us time around 9 PM today,” they said in the letter.
The four non-BJP chief ministers discussed a strategy to provide support to protesting Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who wants IAS officers to end their non-cooperation with his government. The meeting took place shortly after L-G Baijal declined permission to Ms Banerjee to meet Mr Kejriwal. She had planned to go to the protest site — LG’s residential office — along with Mr Naidu.
The CMs also wrote a letter to the Delhi’s LG seeking permission to meet Mr Kejriwal and others staging a sit-in at Raj Niwas.
Mr Kejriwal tweeted: “I don’t think L-G can take such a decision on his own. Obviously, PMO has directed him to refuse permission. Just like IAS strike is being done at PMO’s instance. We live in a democracy. Can Prime Minister deny CMs of other states to meet CM of another state? Raj Niwas is no one’s personal property. It belongs to the people of India.”
“Permission denied by LG. Extremely sad state of affairs,” Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Raghav Chadha tweeted.
Mr Kejriwal followed it up with: “This is getting more and more bizarre...”
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee later said, “Delhi has a population of about 2 crore. The functioning of the state has been stopped for the last four months, and this is unfortunate. The Centre should not cross the line.”
