Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders and workers on Monday held protest demonstrations across the country against the BJP-led Central government over the arrest of their leader and Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia.

Manish Sisodia was arrested on Sunday by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the liquor policy scam case after eight hours of questioning.

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The AAP held protests in various districts of Punjab, UP, Haryana, Maharashtra, Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Mizoram, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Bihar, Odisha among other states and UTs of the country amid heavy police deployment.

In Delhi, thousands of AAP workers and leaders, including party’s senior leader and MLA Ms Atishi, party’s chief spokesperson and MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj and senior leader Adil Ahmad Khan gathered outside the BJP Headquarters to protest against the arrest.

Since Monday morning, several AAP workers and leaders had gathered at AAP headquarters in Delhi even as police erected barricades on several roads leading to DDU Marg where both the BJP headquarters and the AAP office are located.

Rapid Action Force and CRPF personnel in riot gear were also deployed in the area.

The AAP workers were seen sitting on the roads chanting slogans while some were wearing handcuffs in protest against the BJP in the National Capital. They were trying to cross over the barricades even as the police were pushing them back. The police was asking the party workers to get inside the office. But the defiant protestors kept stayed put outside the party office raising slogans “Jail ke taale tutenge, Manish Sisodia chutenge”.

“The Centre wants to arrest every leader, MLA and minister of the AAP. Hence, all of us have come to give our arrest. End our party and put us all in jail. The world should know that there is a dictatorship in India and the situation of Emergency is prevailing,” AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said while speaking to a news agency.

Traffic chaos was witnessed near ITO and other nearby areas after the Delhi Police on Monday closed the Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Marg for vehicular movement in the wake of a protest staged by the AAP in the wake of Sisodia’s arrest.

The AAP leaders held a protest outside the BJP headquarters in Chandigarh on Monday against the ‘unconstitutional’ arrest of Sisodia.

Hundreds of AAP leaders and workers, including Punjab government ministers Harpal Singh Cheema, Anmol Gagan Mann, Lalchand Kataruchak, Brahm Shankar Jimpa, among others, participated in the protest.

Blaming the Centre for the arrest of Sisodia, they raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Central government. The AAP leaders called the arrest of Sisodia a dictatorial decision and dubbed the action as a threat to democracy.