A delegation of Opposition parties will on March 22 meet Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioners over alleged misuse of central agencies in the run up to Lok Sabha elections 2024.
The delegation comprises leaders from the Congress, the TMC, the CPM, the Aam Aadmi Party, DMK, NCP, SP and Samajwadi Party. These parties are part of opposition INDIA bloc.
The meeting comes a day after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by Enforcement Directorate on March 21.
Kejriwal, 55, was arrested weeks before the Lok Sabha elections 2024. His Aam Aadmi Party is contesting elections as part of the INDIA bloc, an amalgamation of opposition parties, putting up a united fight against the BJP in the upcoming general elections.
The arrest had sparked a unanimous condemnation from the leaders of the Opposition, most of them accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) of vindictive misuse of central agencies.
By his arrest, Kejriwal joined the league of Opposition leaders arrested by central agencies in the recent past. Two of his former ministers - Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain - and a Rajya Sabha member from his party, Sanjay Singh, are also in jail.
In fact, Kejriwal is the second opposition chief minister to be arrested by the ED in the last two months. Former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren was arrested by the agency on January 31 in a different case. On March 15, K Kavitha, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, was also arrested by the ED over her alleged money laundering role in the same case.
The seven-phase Lok Sabha election will begin on April 19. The results will be declared on June 4.
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