Congress on Kejriwal’s arrest: PM ‘rattled’ by INDIA bloc; it will strengthen alliance

PTI

New Delhi, March 22

The Congress on Friday claimed that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest shows that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “rattled” by the strength of the INDIA bloc and asserted that this would strengthen the alliance further in the Lok Sabha polls.

Kejriwal, the national convenor of AAP, was arrested by ED in a Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case on Thursday.

Reacting to the developments since last night, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “This is vendetta politics, it has become very clear that the Prime Minister and the Home Minister are rattled by the INDIA bloc, which is a very strong alliance. This is not an alliance of seats; it is a ‘janbandhan’ (people’s alliance).”

“It has become very clear from this step that we are going to get the mandate in this election,” said Ramesh. He asserted that the unity among INDIA bloc parties would increase going forward.

“Only Nitish Kumar has done a volte-face, Jayant (Chaudhary) has gone but the real Lok Dal is with us. This will not make much of a difference and are unity will increase further, we will put in all our strength in fighting these polls,” Ramesh said.

Hitting out at the BJP-led government, Ramesh said they first arrested former Jharkhand chief minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren and have now arrested Kejriwal. They have also “let loose ED, CBI and Income Tax behind several other leaders”, which shows the mindset of the Prime Minister, he said.

Ramesh said Kejriwal’s arrest will not hamper the chances of the INDIA bloc and it will fight more unitedly.

“We know why this is being done. This is a conspiracy and an attempt to derail us when we are getting the trust of the people. They want to divert attention from that,” he alleged.

“The real issues of the people that are being raised by the Congress and other parties, be it price rise, inflation, economic inequalities and social polarisation, they want to divert attention from these issues. They arrest the CM in Jharkhand, then that of Delhi and then action against others through ED and CBI. This is all headline management,” the Congress general secretary said.

Kejriwal was on Friday produced before a court where ED dubbed him a “key conspirator” in the liquor scam case and sought his 10-day custody.

Soon after Kejriwal’s arrest, the Congress had alleged that the BJP was scared of the outcome of the Lok Sabha polls and creating all kinds of problems for the Opposition out of panic. 

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