February 25, 2025: The Delhi Assembly witnessed high-voltage drama today as 12 opposition MLAs, including former Chief Minister and current Leader of the Opposition Atishi, were suspended amid heated exchanges with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the Comptroller and Auditor-General’s (CAG) report on the alleged liquor policy scam.

Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Gopal Rai, one of the few to retain his seat in the recent assembly elections, was also among those ejected from the session. The suspensions came after a raucous confrontation between the opposition and the ruling party during Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena’s address.

The CAG report, tabled this morning, is one of several investigations into alleged corruption during AAP’s tenure. Apart from the liquor policy controversy, another report examines claims that taxpayers' money was misused to renovate the Chief Minister's official residence—dubbed the ‘sheeshmahal’ scam. These allegations, along with the arrest of former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and ex-Deputy CM Manish Sisodia on corruption charges, were a focal point of the BJP’s campaign in the February 5 elections, which saw the AAP suffer a major defeat.

The session took a further contentious turn when Atishi accused the BJP of replacing Dr BR Ambedkar’s portrait in the Chief Minister’s office with that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP strongly refuted the charge, but Atishi declared that protests would continue until the Ambedkar portrait was restored.

The suspended MLAs staged a sit-in outside the Assembly, raising slogans against the BJP government. AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha accused the BJP of dishonoring Ambedkar, stating, “They hate Dr Ambedkar, but the country will not accept this.”

The dramatic events signal a fiery start to the new BJP-led government’s tenure, with AAP vowing to continue its opposition both inside and outside the Assembly.