NEW DELHI: A senior aide announced on Tuesday that Arvind Kejriwal will lead the capital from his prison cell, despite mounting calls from opponents for his resignation.
In relation to a protracted corruption investigation, the chief minister of New Delhi, who also serves as a pivotal figure in an opposition coalition established to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 elections, was taken into custody on Thursday.
A member of Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (Common Man Party, AAP), Atishi Marlena Singh is the minister of education for New Delhi. She said that “statutory and constitutional provisions” allow him to hold his position while incarcerated.
Singh, 42, said AFP, “We are clear that Arvind Kejriwal will remain the chief minister of Delhi.”
“It creates a path for the removal of other opposition chief ministers if he steps down before there has been a trial or conviction,” she continued.
After apprehending Kejriwal, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), India’s main financial investigation agency, began looking into at least four other state chief ministers and their families.
Political rivals of Prime Minister Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are the subject of all the probes.
Although Modi’s supporters support him in large numbers, he is accused by his detractors of intimidating opposition leaders with the help of law enforcement.
Kejriwal (55), refutes the accusations made against him.
His supporters demanded his release at a demonstration in the city on Tuesday, claiming the accusations against him are politically motivated and intended to discredit Modi’s opponents before the election.
International human rights organizations and Modi’s political rivals have long warned of India’s dwindling democratic space.
Singh claims that “all the center has to do is file some fake cases, and then the ED goes ahead and arrests them.”
The world’s greatest democratic exercise, the six-week-long parliamentary elections beginning on April 19, will see over a billion Indians cast ballots to choose a new administration.
Many observers believe that Modi’s reelection is certain, in part because the majority faith of the nation resonates well with his forceful Hindu-nationalist politics.
On Tuesday, hundreds of BJP supporters marched through New Delhi, shouting their support for Modi and calling for Kejriwal to step down.
“A government cannot be run from jail; a gang can.” Manoj Tiwari, a BJP lawmaker, informed the assembly. “One cannot run a government from a prison.”
Hemant Soren, the chief minister of Jharkhand state, was detained and imprisoned in February on suspicion of corruption.
Soren quit and gave authority to a colleague; he refutes all of the accusations.
