NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party workers on Friday staged a protest outside the residence of former Delhi Social Welfare minister Raaj Kumar Anand, two days after he quit the party and resigned from the Cabinet.
The protesting party workers expressed strong resentment over Anand abruptly ‘deserting’ the AAP and subsequently cheating the people of his constituency.
“For the last four years, Anand has been working for the AAP. He had promised several development projects to those who had voted for him. People of his constituency are feeling cheated,” Ankush Narang, an AAP worker said.
Anand is an MLA from the Patel Nagar Vidhan Sabha constituency and won the 2020 Delhi Assembly election by defeating BJP’s Pravesh Ratn.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police did not allow the AAP workers to stage a protest as they had not sought any permission from the authorities for the same.
“We detained a few AAP workers, who were protesting outside the residence of former minister Raaj Kumar Anand. They did not have any permission,” a senior police officer said, adding that the detained AAP cadres were taken to a nearby police station and were released later.
AAP leader Narang also alleged that Anand decided to leave the party fearing Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids in connection to the Delhi excise policy case.
Apart from the protest held outside the ex-minister’s residence, AAP workers also gathered at ITO overbridge and raised slogans against the arrest of party supremo and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21 in a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam. He is currently lodged in Tihar jail in judicial custody till April 15.
The AAP workers at ITO footover bridge carried posters showing Arvind Kejriwal’s picture, which was captioned ‘jail ka jawab vote se’. They also raised slogans like ‘Aam Aadmi Party Zindabad’ and ‘Arvind Kejriwal Zindabad’.