Modi critic "Kejriwal" joins India’s election campaign on bail

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal joined India’s ongoing general election — boosting the opposition alliance on Saturday — a day after the Supreme Court ordered his temporary release on bail in a controversial graft case.

A fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, Kejriwal was arrested in late March, in connection with corruption allegations related to the excise policy of the Delhi government led by him. He denies the accusations.

On Friday, the top court granted Kejriwal 21-day interim bail to campaign in the seven-phase general vote, which started on April 19. He has to surrender after the last day of voting on June 1.

“I will go around the country in the next 21 days to stop this dictatorship of Modi,” Kejriwal said at a conference in Delhi.

“After June 4, there will be no Modi government. In all states, their seats are going down and they will not get more than 220 to 230 seats.”

The results of the world’s largest election are set to be announced on June 4. The party or coalition that wins at least 272 of the 543 contested seats in the lower house of parliament will form the government.

Seeking a third straight term in office, Modi has been targeting 400 seats for the National Democratic Alliance led by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been in power since 2014.

He is challenged by an alliance of two dozen opposition parties, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, or INDIA, of which Kejriwal’s AAP is a part.

Kejriwal has accused Modi and his BJP of damaging democracy, and abusing power and the constitution.

“The opposition’s morale will get a further boost,” said Satish Kumar Singh, a political analyst in Delhi.

“The release of Kejriwal further reinforces the opposition campaign on the need to save democracy and maintain fairness in the electoral process.”

Kejriwal’s AAP is a challenger to the BJP in Delhi and Punjab, where voting will take place on May 25 and June 1 respectively.

“Kejriwal’s release is a boost to the cadres of the AAP and the opposition alliance at this crucial time when the opposition alliance is challenging the dominance of the BJP in the capital city,” Andalib Akhtar, a New Delhi-based commentator and editor of The Indian Awaz, told Arab News.

“It’s good that the court has taken a decision in favor of democracy and is giving the opposition leader — who was arrested just on the eve of the general elections — an opportunity to be on an equal footing democratically.”

Opposition leaders in India’s troubled Kashmir valley have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration of denying or canceling permissions to hold campaign events, to help his party’s “proxies.”
Omar Abdullah, a leader of the largest regional political party, the National Conference, said Modi’s government was trying to sabotage his campaign ahead of voting in the first of Kashmir’s three seats on Monday.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is skipping elections in Kashmir for the first since 1996, which analysts and politicians in the region say belies his narrative of integrating Kashmir with the rest of the country and bringing peace and normality to the valley ravaged by a 35-year-old uprising against India’s rule.
In 2019, Modi revoked Jammu and Kashmir state’s partial autonomy, removed its statehood and divided it into two federally-controlled territories: Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu-dominated Jammu, and a mountainous Buddhist territory of Ladakh.
While the BJP has not fielded any candidate in Kashmir’s three seats, it has said that, as part of its grand strategy, it would instead support other smaller regional parties, without naming which.
In a letter to the federal poll watchdog, the Election Commission of India, on Thursday, Abdullah said the police, which are under the federal government’s control, canceled permissions for his rallies, asking him to reschedule without providing any reasons.
He said on social media platform X that it was done to help the BJP’s “proxy candidates.”
His rival Mehbooba Mufti, who heads the other regional political powerhouse the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), also accused the police of not allowing her to hold campaign events.
“This attitude of the police, in which they curtail our movement to support the proxy parties of the BJP, is against the guidelines of the Election Commission of India,” she said at a rally in Srinagar on Thursday.
V.K. Birdi, the police official responsible for Kashmir, did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
Both Abdullah and Mufti have said they were opposed to the BJP and would support an opposition Congress-led alliance of more than two dozen parties federally.
The state unit of the election watchdog has also asked PDP’s Srinagar candidate, Waheed ur Rehman Para to refrain from calling this election a “referendum” against scrapping of semi-autonomy of the region in 2019 in his speeches.
While Srinagar will vote on May 13, the elections in the other two seats will be held on May 20 and 25.
Nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan control parts of Kashmir, but claim it in full, and have fought two of their three wars over the region.

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