New Delhi: Agitated over his comment mocking party leader Manoj Tiwari, BJP workers this afternoon held a massive protest outside Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence. Police made use of water cannons to disperse the agitators of BJP's Purvanchal Morcha who came in large numbers and turned violent. Visuals showed protesters scaling over barricades installed by police personnel, while fluttering banners and raising anti-Kejriwal slogans. Reports say a number of protesters were detained and shoved into a police van.

Kejriwal on Wednesday said if the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was implemented in the national capital, state BJP chief Manoj Tiwari would have to leave the city. "If the NRC was implemented in Delhi, Tiwari will have to leave Delhi first," the Chief Minister at a press conference.

Kejriwal’s response came over a question that Tiwari had alleged rise in criminal activities in Delhi due to illegal migrants.

Tiwari has been actively demanding for NRC to be implemented in Delhi on the lines of Assam.

Reacting to the chief minister’s remark, Tiwari said it had exposed Kejriwal's real face and alleged, he wanted to evict migrants from UP and Bihar.



Earlier this week, Tiwari had told news agency IANS the NRC was important as there was no record of illegal foreign migrants in the city and termed them a threat to the nation and the people."There's no record of illegal migrants. They commit crime and may also indulge in anti-national activities. It's a security threat to people and the country," Tiwari said.

The NRC, he said would only target people from outside the country. "Indians, from any part of the country, living in Delhi will not be affected in any form. The issue will be only for illegal foreign migrants."

Leader of opposition in the Delhi assembly Vijender Gupta also demanded that the Kejriwal government needs to come out with a white paper on Bangladeshi and Rohingya "illegal immigrants".

AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj asked Tiwari to prove he had been a Delhi resident since 1971 by showing legal documents."The BJP wants to bring the NRC to throw out people from Bihar and UP who come here to work. In the NRC, only those who have documents to prove that they are staying in Delhi from before 1971 would be considered Delhi residents. I want to ask Tiwari to show us proof that he has been staying in Delhi from the years before 1971 and if he can show that then let them bring the NRC for Delhi," Bharadwaj said.

He also said in the past few days, Delhi BJP leaders had started showing concern for people from UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand or Odisha. "They constitute nearly half of Delhi's population. The BJP wants to throw them out of Delhi," Bharadwaj said.