Arvind Kejriwal walks with supporters towards a police barricade after spending the night on the street during a sit-in protest.
New Delhi:
Arvind Kejriwal's supporters clashed with the police at the site of the chief minister's protest near Rail Bhavan, which led to a lathi-charge. Mr Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are on Day 2 of what they threaten could be an "indefinite protest" against the city's police.
Here are the latest developments in this story:
Arvind Kejriwal and his supporters have made it clear that the bitter January cold or unexpected rain will not affect their protest. To make the point, AAP workers danced and sang and shouted slogans in the rain under posters, plastic sheets and other makeshift umbrellas this morning. (Read)
Mr Kejriwal, who is said to be unwell, sat in his car for a short while this morning when it rained. Last night, as he camped out on the pavement, his doctors conducted a quick check up on him. He is a diabetes patient. (Track LIVE updates)
Mr Kejriwal has steadfastly refused the security cover due to the chief minister. As he slept near his famous blue Wagon-R, several cops and members of the Central Reserve Police Force stood guard. (See pics)
The Aam Aadmi Party says the control of the Delhi police force should be transferred to the state government from the national home ministry. It also wants five policemen to be suspended for failing to make arrests ordered by two ministers.
The police has said it did not have warrants for the arrests. Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has asked Mr Kejriwal to wait for an enquiry to be completed, a request rejected by the Aam Aadmi Party.
"I said 10 days, but it was a way of saying that the protest is indefinite. If the central government does not agree to our demands by Jan 26, then we will fill Rajpath (the central boulevard in the heart of central Delhi) with lakhs of people," said the Chief Minister.
The Union government and para-military forces need to sanitise the area that is being used for the sit-in for Republic Day, when India parades its tanks and missiles on the large central boulevard leading upto Rashtrapati Bhawan. "We didn't choose this site. We simply stopped where the police cut us off," said the Aam Aadmi Party's Yogendra Yadav. Mr Kejriwal was on his way to the Home Ministry yesterday to stage a demonstration when barricades forced him to truncate his journey. (Read: Cabinet meeting on the road for Arvind Kejriwal's government on the streets)
Police have barricaded off the area around the protest site, meaning the thousands of supporters that AAP is trying to mobilise in support of the protest will face difficulties reaching.
Mr Kejriwal attacked the Union government today for failing to provide basic facilities like public toilets at the demonstration venue. "Today in the morning, I myself broke the barricade and my ministers went to the toilets. Shinde has closed the toilets of all the buildings. We are people from India not Pakistan," he said. (A mattress by the road, no toilet: Kejriwal's night of protest)
Law Minister Somanth Bharti, who is protesting along with the Chief Minister, was seen this morning coming out of the women's washroom at the Press Club, though the men's toilet was right next to it. (Read)
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