Aam Aadmi Party legislators held a protest in Chandigarh today
Ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Opposition BJP took out protest marches in Chandigarh today over the prevailing political situation in Punjab. While AAP legislators were protesting the Governor's cancellation of the special session of the Punjab assembly for a confidence vote, BJP party workers and leaders were protesting what they claimed to be false allegations of poaching against the party by the AAP leadership and the Punjab government's attempt to summon what they termed as a needless special session of the assembly.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said today that his government will move Supreme Court, challenging Governor Banwarilal Purohit's withdrawal of permission to convene a special session of the assembly for a confidence vote. He also said that an assembly session will be convened on September 27 to discuss issues such as electricity and stubble burning.
Yesterday, the Punjab Governor had turned down the AAP government's demand for a special session of the assembly to introduce a confidence motion. The Governor withdrew the order to summon a special session of the Punjab assembly on September 22. His decision triggered a massive point-counterpoint between all the major political parties in the state.
AAP legislators had planned to organise a march from the Vidhan Sabha to the Governor's official residence. However, they were stopped by the police around one kilometre from the Vidhan Sabha complex. The protesting MLAs then sat down where they were stopped and started shouting slogans against the Congress and BJP.
Carrying placards with messages of "Stop murder of democracy" and "Operation Lotus murdabad", AAP MLAs slammed the Congress and BJP for allegedly being hand-in-glove and working against holding the special session of the assembly.
AAP had recently claimed that at least ten of its MLAs were approached by the BJP with offers of Rs 25 crores to each of them in a bid to topple the government under what it termed as the BJP's "Operation Lotus".
Meanwhile, BJP leaders and party workers tried to march to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's residence, but they too were stopped by the police and water cannons were used on the protesters.
Earlier, the BJP leadership in Punjab tweeted that in order to protect the interests of Punjab and Punjabis, the party was ready to surround the residence of the Chief Minister of Punjab.
Raghav Chadha, AAP leader and party in-charge for the Punjab assembly elections earlier this year, tweeted: "In Punjab, when #OperationLotus started to expose the Mann government, the governor canceled the approval with the connivance of Congress-BJP, the governor has no right to cancel the session."