From Anti-corruption Crusader to Liquor ‘Scam’ Accused, Kejriwal’s Arrest Big Blow to AAP Before LS Polls

From main the ‘India Towards Corruption’ motion to changing into the chief minister of Delhi thrice in a row, Arvind Kejriwal, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday, has had a chequered profession as a bureaucrat-turned-activist-turned-politician. Kejriwal’s arrest comes at a time when his Aam Aadmi Get together (AAP) is making a critical foray into electoral politics via a tie-up with its opposition INDIA bloc companion Congress for the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi, Haryana and Gujarat.

The 55-year-old AAP nationwide convener’s arrest might have critical repercussions on the ballot fortunes of the celebration since he has been on the centre of its plans and technique for the Lok Sabha election. In his absence, the celebration stares at uncertainty as a lot of its different senior leaders are both in jail or in political obscurity.

His trusted aides — Sanjay Singh and Manish Sisodia — are in jail in reference to the excise coverage case, whereas one other trusted aide Satyendar Jain is in jail in a separate cash laundering case. An IIT graduate, Kejriwal first led AAP to type the federal government in Delhi in 2013 with outdoors assist from the Congress. He confronted off with former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit within the New Delhi constituency and defeated her by a margin of twenty-two,000 votes in his ballot debut.

However the Aam Aadmi Get together-Congress authorities lasted solely 49 days as Kejriwal resigned since he was unable to go the Jan Lokpal Invoice within the Delhi Meeting. Buoyed by the celebration’s electoral good points in its first-ever elections in Delhi, Kejriwal introduced his determination to face off with the BJP’s Narendra Modi within the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi, solely to face a crushing defeat.

The subsequent 12 months, Kejriwal led AAP to victory on 67 seats within the nationwide capital, limiting the BJP, which was using the Modi wave, to solely three seats whereas the Congress drew a clean. Within the run-up to the 2015 Meeting polls, he had continuously apologised for his actions in the course of the 49-day tenure in 2013 and promised to not give up once more.

Rising from the anti-corruption motion of 2011, AAP was based within the nationwide capital by Kejriwal and his closest associates on Gandhi Jayanti (October 2) the subsequent 12 months. Inside a brief span of 12 years, Kejriwal has single-handedly led AAP’s rise because the third largest nationwide celebration of the nation, following the BJP and the Congress, having its footprints not solely in Delhi and Punjab but additionally in faraway Gujarat and Goa.

Kejriwal, who was challenged by politicians throughout his ‘India Towards Corruption’ days to take a plunge into energetic politics to style realpolitik, managed to maintain points like well being, training, water and electrical energy provide because the core of his politics and governance, whilst his detractors slammed him for giving up on his promise for Lokpal. Kejriwal, who rose to prominence as an activist using on the widespread public anger over big-ticket corruption prices on the then Congress-led UPA regime in 2011, nonetheless maintains the streak, slamming politicians over the dilapidated situation of well being and training within the nation.

In his over a decade-long political journey, Kejriwal has proven a wide range of strikes, be it becoming a member of the INDIA bloc of opposition events, whose leaders he earlier slammed over corruption points, or adopting a “gentle Hindutva” strategy exemplified by his free pilgrimage scheme and the latest chanting of “Jai Sri Ram” slogans within the Delhi Meeting. As soon as he had demanded to place images of Ganesha and Lakshmi on forex notes for the financial prosperity of the nation.

AAP’s declare of pursuing corruption-free governance and various politics receives a giant dent as Kejriwal goes to jail in reference to the liquor rip-off case. Whereas defending Sisodia, Singh and Satyendar Jain, Kejriwal used to name corruption “treason” and assert that AAP follows the trail proven by Bhagat Singh.

The arrest of Kejriwal in a corruption case is certainly a giant departure from his earlier persona as an AAP chief holding a 14-day quick in 2013 to place strain on the then Sheila Dikshit authorities for motion over “inflated” water and electrical energy payments. Having positioned himself among the many high politicians within the nation, Kejriwal has come a good distance in a comparatively brief span of his political journey that started as a skinny, bespectacled, muffler-clad chief of a fledgling celebration round 2014-15 that earned him the “mufflerman” nickname.

(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – PTI)