New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was on Saturday denied permission to meet her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, who is sitting on protest at his office-cum-residence, Raj Niwas, by Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal on Saturday denied permission. "Permission denied by LG. Extremely sad state of affairs," Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Raghav Chadha tweeted. 






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Kejriwal followed it up with -"This is getting more and more bizarre..."





Kejriwal, along with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Cabinet ministers Satyendar Jain and Gopal Rai, is camping at Raj Niwas since Monday demanding a direction to the IAS officers working in the Delhi administration to end their 'undeclared strike', among other demands.


The Delhi CM on Saturday alleged that there is de facto President's rule in Delhi because of what the AAP government describes as an ongoing IAS officers' strike. In response to a tweet about IAS officers withdrawing from work being de facto President's rule, Kejriwal tweeted, "I agree. It is de facto president's rule in Delhi through IAS strike."


Jain and Sisodia have been sitting on hunger strike at the waiting room of the LG secretariat since Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. Kejriwal has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to work with his officers not attending his meetings. In his letter to the PM on Friday, he urged him to end IAS officers' strike so that he can attend a meeting of NITI Aayog on Sunday.


Also, Sisodia on Friday released a video warning that if they are forcibly removed from the LG secretariat, they will stop drinking water too.



However, the IAS officers' association has maintained that no officer is on 'strike'.


Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court on Friday agreed to hear on June 18 a plea seeking direction to the L-G to ensure that the alleged informal strike by IAS officers of Delhi is called off and they perform their duties as public servants. The petition comes in the backdrop of another plea filed on Thursday in the court seeking that the sit-in by Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues at the LG office against the "strike" by the IAS officers be declared unconstitutional and illegal. 


This plea against Kejriwal's sit-in was also listed for hearing for June 18.


(With IANS and PTI inputs)