Mamata Banerjee and the three other Chief Ministers, who are in New Delhi for the Niti Ayog meeting, spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines requesting his intervention in solving the Delhi government impasse.
The West Bengal Chief Minister took to Twitter to inform that she joined Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy, Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu and Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan in requesting the PM to solve the problems that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has raised.
“I along with the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala have requested PM Modi today to resolve the problems of Delhi government immediately,” she wrote on Twitter.
The AAP had on Saturday said that Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal had refused to grant Mamata Banerjee permission to meet Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at the L-G office, where the AAP chief is protesting for the last 7 days.
The West Bengal Chief Minister was to meet the AAP chief at 8 pm on 16 June along with the Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu.
Banerjee attended a meeting at Andhra Bhawan with Vijayan, Kumaraswamy and Naidu to discuss a strategy to provide support to Kejriwal.
The four Chief Ministers visited Kejriwal’s home and met his wife before marching to the L-G’s office to meet the Delhi CM and others protesting there. They held a press conference late last night to address the issue.
“There is a political crisis,” said Banerjee, adding “This is not right that for the last four months this matter is not getting solved.”
Naidu said that they are demanding that the Centre should allow the elected state government to function smoothly. Kumaraswamy said, “We came to support the Delhi CM to save democracy. We demand the PM to solve the problem.”
Support for Kejriwal has also poured in from other leaders.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah and DMK leader MK Stalin extended their backing to the AAP leaders protesting in the office of the L-G.
Read More: Omar Abdullah latest to back Arvind Kejriwal as Delhi impasse enters Day 7
Meanwhile, AAP leaders’ will begin a protest march at its scheduled time at 4 pm from Mandi House to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Read More: Four CMs by Kejriwal side, AAP protest march up to PMO at 4pm
“Modi government is shamelessly misusing its powers and institutions to stop Delhi government from working for the people,” said AAP national secretary Pankaj Gupta on Sunday.
Kejriwal, along with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Cabinet ministers Satyendar Jain and Gopal Rai, is camping at Raj Niwas since Monday demanding a direction to the IAS officers working in the Delhi administration to end their undeclared strike, among other demands.