NEW DELHI: The city mayors and leaders of the BJP-ruled municipal corporations continued to picket outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, saying they will not budge until funds "due to the civic bodies" are not released by the Delhi government.
The mayors of North, South and East Delhi Municipal Corporations, Jai Prakash, Anamika Mithilesh and Nirmal Jain, accompanied by Delhi BJP vice president Harsh Malhotra, and many women councilors, had started the sit-in on Monday morning outside Kejriwal's Flagstaff Road residence.
Awaiting meeting the chief minister, they continued the dharna till late night and even spent the whole night there, sitting on mattresses outside the CM residence.
"We will not move from his bungalow until the due funds of MCD are released or the CM gives us an assurance of that," said North Delhi Mayor Prakash.
East Delhi Mayor Jain said, all MCD leaders spent the night outside the CM Residence in cold, "but we will continue to do dharna, until the funds are released, irrespective of the cold weather".
The mayors along with their deputies, chairpersons of standing committees leaders of Houses, and others again demonstrated on Tuesday, and raised slogans demanding release of crores of funds which they allege is "due" to the three civic bodies.
A posse of security personnel has been deployed near the CM House in Civil Lines area since Monday.
Meanwhile, Kejriwal on Tuesday addressed AAP members from his residence here and said he would have gone to support the protesting farmers in their Bharat Bandh movement if he was not stopped.
After hours of drama outside Kejriwal's residence over him allegedly being put under house arrest by Delhi Police, the chief minister came outside and addressed the party members.
Delhi BJP's Malhotra on Monday had said, "We have not received any word from the chief minister of the Delhi government to discuss our demand for payment of unpaid dues. We are prepared to continue the sit-in indefinitely."
The mayors and other municipal corporation leaders claimed there is outstanding dues of Rs nearly 13,000 crore in total to the three civic bodies from the Delhi government.