Veteran journalists often recall how two young RTI activists — a bespectacled Arvind Kejriwal and a balding Manish Sisodia — would wait patiently at the reception of newspaper offices to hand over RTI replies to media persons.

The entire national capital will recall how a former Indian Revenue Services officer meteorically rose from the anti-corruption movements to sweep Delhi in not just one or two, but three consecutive elections. He had defeated three-time Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit in her own constituency, reduced the mighty BJP to just 8 MLAs and made his 12-year-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) a national outfit.

And yet, the IIT-Kharagpur alumni, who made corruption a successful political plank, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday from his residence on graft charges, making him the first Delhi CM who’s been arrested for that reason.

In its defence, ED officials maintained that the 2021-22 excise policy was allegedly designed to fill the pockets of the AAP and some of its leaders, and was the “brainchild” of Arvind Kejriwal.

Following his arrest, an officer with the federal agency said there were broadly three reasons why the CM was arrested: first, there was evidence he was involved in the formulation and implementation of the policy; two, because he ignored repeated summons; and three, he was evasive during questioning.

Broadly, the allegations around the excise policy pertain to ₹100 crore in kickbacks paid by a group of businessmen and politicians referred to by investigators as the ‘South Group’ to AAP. This money was shovelled back to the party’s leaders in return for securing nine retail vending zones for alcohol under the new policy, according to the federal agency.

In Kejriwal’s defence, AAP leaders claimed the ED could only find ₹70,000 at the chief minister’s bungalow. The BJP demanded the resignation of Kejriwal.

After his arrest, Kejriwal was brought to the ED office in central Delhi at 11.25 pm. A 10-member team of the federal agency, led by an additional director-level officer, had carried out searches at the CM’s residence on Flagstaff Road in Delhi’s Civil Lines area. The CM was arrested two hours after the ED team reached his residence after officials questioned him.

This is the 16th arrest by the ED in the case, including that of AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh. Kejriwal had skipped nine summonses issued by the agency for questioning.

The BJP said Kejriwal reaped what he sowed and asserted that the law has finally caught up with him after his long-drawn efforts to evade it. “The arrest of Kejriwal symbolises the defeat of corruption, and now Kejriwal should resign immediately. It is an insult to constitutional norms for leaders of the Kejriwal party to say that Kejriwal will run the government from jail,” said Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva.

Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj claimed that every corner of Arvind Kejriwal’s house was searched by the agency and said Kejriwal’s mobile phone was seized. “The ED didn’t get any evidence, property documents, illegal money, or money trail,” he claimed.

AAP minister Atishi said the party had moved the Supreme Court to quash Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest through a midnight hearing. However, per reports, no special bench was set up on Thursday night. “He (Kejriwal) will continue to be the chief minister of Delhi. If need be, he will run the government from jail. There is no rule that stops him from running the government from jail since he has not been convicted,” she told reporters.

INDIA backs Kejriwal

During the days of protests to demand a Lokpal law, the UPA government had reached out to the Anna Hazare camp to give them an unprecedented offer: a group of ministers (GoM) would be constituted to negotiate with the activists. Sharad Pawar, the then agriculture minister and one of the senior most faces of the UPA government, was included in the group.

Kejriwal and Co. refused to sit with him claiming that he is a tainted person. A disgusted Pawar called the head of the GoM Pranab Mukherjee to say that he will opt out of the group to not create any impediments for the talks.

On Thursday, it was the same Sharad Pawar who was one of the first Opposition leaders to condemn Kejriwal’s arrest. “The vindictive misuse of central agencies to target the opposition, especially as general elections loom. This arrest showcases the depth to which BJP will stoop for power. ‘INDIA’ stands united against this unconstitutional action against #ArvindKejriwal,” tweeted Pawar.

From Rahul Gandhi to Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien, opposition leaders slammed the BJP government for Kejriwal’s arrest, and claimed that the BJP is afraid to fight the elections.

56 candidates in Congress’ latest list

The Congress party held its fifth meeting on candidates on Thursday and later released its third list for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress on Thursday named its Lok Sabha floor leader Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, former lawmaker MV Rajeev Gowda and former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister Jayaprakash Hegde, who jumped ship earlier this month, in its third list of 56 candidates for the much-anticipated Lok Sabha elections this summer.

Other candidates include Samyukta S Patil, daughter of Shivanand Patil (Bagalkot), Mrinal Ravindra Hebbalkar, son of Laxmi Hebbalkar (Belgaum), and Sagar Khandre, son of Eshwar Khandre (Bidar). Mansoor Ali Khan, son of former deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha K Rahman Khan, will contest from Bangalore Central, and Prabha Mallikarjun, wife of minister S S Mallikarjun, will contest from Davangere.

All five are fresh faces and will be contesting Lok Sabha elections for the first time in the Rajasthan list. The other candidates include Congress leader and chairman of a private university Sunil Sharma from Jaipur city, Sangeeta Beniwal from Pali and Umeda Ram Beniwal from Barmer.