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Several Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders, including Delhi ministers, took to social media late Wednesday night to express their apprehensions that party supremo and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal could be raided and arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Delhi excise policy case on Thursday morning.
In a post online, the AAP’s national general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak said: “Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal likely to be raided tomorrow early morning by ED.”
Minister Atishi said on X: “News coming in that ED is going to raid Arvind Kejriwal’s residence tomorrow morning. Arrest likely.”
AAP leader Jasmine Shah stated that “sources confirm ED is going to raid the residence… tomorrow morning. He (Kejriwal) is likely to be arrested”.
Sources in Delhi Police, meanwhile, said that in light of the social media posts by the AAP leaders, they have made security arrangements outside the ED’s headquarters.
The AAP leaders’ coordinated pitch over the possibility of Kejriwal’s arrest is set to escalate the party’s running confrontation with the BJP, which rules the Centre.
On Wednesday, Kejriwal skipped the third summons by the ED in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case and cited Rajya Sabha polls, Republic Day preparations and the probe agency’s “non-disclosure and non-response approach” as reasons for not appearing before it. In a letter to the ED, the AAP chief also said he would be “happy to answer” any questionnaire sent by it.
The Delhi CM was, in April last year, questioned by the CBI in the excise policy case. Three senior AAP leaders — former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and AAP communications in-charge Vijay Nair — have already been arrested by the ED in the case. Both Sisodia and Singh were arrested the same day that they were questioned.
Congress high-level meet
The Congress is gearing up for the Bharat Nyay Yatra that senior party leader Rahul Gandhi is set to undertake from January 14. Multiple levels of deliberations are being held for this East-to-West Yatra, which is set to cover 6,200 kilometres across 14 states, from Manipur to Maharashtra.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is set to hold on Thursday a meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretaries and state in-charges, state party presidents and the legislature party leaders at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi.
Besides taking stock of the Congress’s readiness for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the meeting will discuss the party’s preparations for the Yatra, which is being pitched as its biggest public outreach programme ahead of the polls. The party will also look into the activities that it will undertake in states that the Yatra would not traverse, so as to keep the momentum going in this critical election season.
Additionally, the topic of seat-sharing with the INDIA bloc allies is also likely to come up for discussion at the meeting. The Congress central leadership has already begun an exercise of consulting its state units to gauge their mind on the issue, hoping to resolve any possible differences as soon as possible.
The five-member national alliance committee of the Congress comprises former CMs Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel and senior leaders — Mukul Wasnik, Salman Khurshid and Mohan Prakash. They have already met party leaders from several state units – among them Delhi, Bihar and Maharashtra – to seek their views on seat-sharing.
The Congress may run into trouble while negotiating seat-sharing with its INDIA allies in some states.
In Punjab and Delhi, it would face a stiff challenge from the ruling AAP. In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has already claimed it would contest 23 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats and that its talks with the Congress have to start from “zero”.
The outcome of Kharge-convened meeting on Thursday will, therefore, be closely watched.
Sharmila may join Cong
Ahead of the Telangana Assembly elections held in November last year, there were speculations about Y S Sharmila merging her outfit YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) with the Congress. The merger did not materialise, but she stayed away from the elections as she “did not want her candidates to split pro-Congress votes”.
Sharmila, daughter of former Andhra Pradesh CM late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) and sister of current Andhra CM Jagan Mohan Reddy, has now decided to take the plunge after talks between her and former YSRCP MP Y V Subba Reddy, her uncle, failed. Sources said Jagan had sent Subba Reddy as his emissary to convince Sharmila to join the YSRCP as he felt his influence and image across the state would be affected if his sister joins the fray in the state.
Sources told The Indian Express that Sharmila is all set to join the Congress. On Thursday, she is likely to meet top Congress leaders, including Kharge, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, in Delhi. Telangana CM
A Revanth Reddy may also be in attendance. It is expected that she will make an announcement on her joining the Congress after the meeting.
Jagan and Sharmila parted ways, politically, in July 2021 after the latter floated her outfit in Telangana. Both the YSRCP and the YSRTP were formed with the avowed objective to take forward YSR’s legacy and bring back “Rajanna Rajyam” (YSR’s governance).
Sharmila’s entry to the Congress is likely to set up the possibility of a brother-sister duel in the upcoming simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, which might have a bearing on the future prospects of Jagan – and that of the Congress, which has been decimated in the state since its bifurcation in 2014.
— With inputs from PTI
