Kejriwal's dharna scripted by BJP: Cong

The Congress on Friday stepped up its offensive against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal dubbing his sit-in protest at the Lieutenant Governor's office as the "final act of the scripted drama" co-authored with the BJP to divert attention from issues facing the people.

Sensing an opportunity to make a comeback in the national capital where it was wiped out in the 2015 Assembly elections, Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken sang paeans to foe-turned-friend and three-term chief minister Shiela Dikshit recalling how she always got work done with cooperation from the bureaucracy.

"Sheila ji carried out seminal reforms in the national capital under the same Constitutional framework that the AAP is faced with. One needs to know how to get work done amicably," Maken told press conference with Shiela by his side.

Maken said recalled that the Delhi Metro project, power sector reforms and the conversion of 1 lakh public transport vehicles to CNG were implemented in the capital by Shiela with a BJP government at the Centre.

Kejriwal and his ministerial colleagues Manish Sisodia, Gopal Rai and Satyendra Jain stayed put in the waiting room of the Lieutenant Governor's office for the past five days seeking a direction from him to the IAS officers to end their "strike".

In a counter-protest, BJP MP Pravesh Verma, three party MLAs and the AAP's rebel legislator Kapil Mishra sat on a dharna outside the chief minister's office at the Delhi Secretariat.

The Congress has claimed that the protests by the AAP and the BJP were scripted on the day the Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash was attacked by AAP workers in presence of Kejriwal in February.

Maken said Shiela also had differences on various issues with the Centre but ensured that they did not spill out in the open.

"I have never seen a government sitting on a dharna. I fail to understand what is the aim of the protest. What are they trying to hide," Shiela said.

Dikshit also said that the Congress was not in favour of imposition of President's Rule in Delhi contending that a duly elected government has to sort out the differences it has with the Lt Governor.

The Congress had drawn a blank in the 2015 state Assembly elections when the AAP had got a sweeping mandate having won 67 of the 70 seats.

Though the Congress is seeking coalition partners for an anti-BJP alliance for the Lok Sabha elections next year, it has not made any overtures to the AAP contending that their graph was already on a decline.