NEW DELHI:
Delhi chief minister
Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest by the
Enforcement Directorate
(ED) seems to have worked in getting the disgruntled opposition parties of the
INDIA bloc
that had been in disarray over seat sharing issues, back in the fold as
Mamata Banerjee
’s
Trinamool Congress
will participate in the joint opposition rally on March 31, at the Ramlila grounds here.
While West Bengal chief minister Banerjee will not be attending the
joint rally
to protest against ruling BJP’s “vendetta politics” of central agencies targeting opposition leaders across states, as she will be kicking off her party’s Lok Sabha campaign in the state on the same day, two TMC leaders will represent the party at the joint rally here on Sunday.
Kejriwal’s arrest last Thursday, within a month and a half of Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren’s arrest by ED on January 31, after Lok Sabha polls had been announced, triggered a strong reaction from the opposition parties. Even TMC which had distanced itself from the INDIA bloc returned to the fold with Banerjee herself announcing a joint delegation headed to meet with the Election Commission the next day.
Congress, an ally of Kejriwal’s AAP in Delhi, Haryana and Gujarat for the LS polls, on Friday claimed
Kejriwal’s arrest
shows that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “rattled” by the strength of the INDIA bloc. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “This is
vendetta politics
, it has become very clear that the Prime Minister and the home minister (Amit Shah) are rattled by the INDIA bloc… this is not an alliance of seats it is a people’s alliance,” adding, they first arrested former Jharkhand chief minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren and have now arrested Kejriwal. They have “let loose ED, CBI and Income Tax behind several other leaders,” which shows the mindset of the Prime Minister. He said Kejriwal’s arrest will ensure the INDIA bloc will fight more unitedly.
Calling it a “calculated assault” on opposition chief ministers while tainted leaders with connections to BJP remained untouched, Mamata Banerjee took to X posting the ‘INDIA’ bloc would be meeting the Election Commission to voice their objection to the arrests of opposition leaders.
From, Congress, an ally of Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, Gujarat and Haryana, to NCP (SCP) leader and veteran Maharashtra leader Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, to PDP and NC leaders from Kashmir, the CPM and CPI to a whole array of other party leaders, wasted no time in slamming the Narendra Modi regime, even as many of them had been squabbling with each other over seat sharing issues, before that.
Hence the joint show of strength at the Ramlila grounds is expected to vent the opposition’s anger at the BJP-led Centre’s “misuse of power,” though it is to be seen how much resonance it has on the ground as the opposition party’s face the heat across states against the dominant BJP.