AAP Support TMC Leaders Dharna For Change of ED, IT, NIA And CBI Chiefs To Ensure Fair Elections
Chanting slogans against the BJP, the Trinamul Congress leaders ended their 24-hour protest at the Mandir Marg police station in the national capital on Tuesday evening, a day after they were detained while staging a dharna outside the Election Commission's office. Extending their support to the TMC, leaders of the AAP, including Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj and MLA Dilip Pandey, also met the protesting leaders who camped overnight at the police station.
On Monday, the TMC leaders met with the full bench of the EC and urged the poll body to change the heads of the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigation, the National Investigation Agency and the income-tax (I-T) department, alleging that the Central agencies are acting at the behest of the ruling BJP at the Centre.
Later, the 10-member delegation of the party, including Derek O'Brien, Mohammed Nadimul Haque, Dola Sen, Saket Gokhale, Sagarika Ghose, MLA Vivek Gupta, former MPs Arpita Ghosh, Santanu Sen and Abir Ranjan Biswas and the party's West Bengal students' wing vice-president Sudip Raha, announced that they were sitting on a 24-hour dharna.
The leaders were asked to disperse by the police, but as they continued their protest, the security personnel forcibly evicted them and detained them. They were made to board a bus, which Mr O'Brien said drove around for about an hour-and-a-half, after which they were taken to the Mandir Marg police station, where they decided to continue their protest.
On their part, the Delhi police said on Tuesday that the TMC leaders were released on Monday night, but they stayed put at the police station throughout the night and continued their dharna.
While all the TMC leaders sat inside the police station premises, Mr Haque and Ms Ghose, who had gone out briefly, were not allowed to re-enter. They sat on a dharna outside the boundary of the police station building.
Condemning the police action, the AAP extended their support to the TMC's demand for the removal of the chiefs of the NIA, ED, I-T and CBI. "The TMC leaders went to the EC to demand that the attacks on the Opposition by the Central agencies be stopped. The Prime Minister is campaigning across the country every day while raids are being carried out against the Opposition leaders so that they can't campaign," Mr Bharadwaj said.
In a post on X in Hindi, AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh also extended support to the TMC. He said that if you ask for justice from the Election Commission, you will get jail. We are with the TMC in their struggle.
