With Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal all set to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday, November 2, for questioning in the excise policy case, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is trying to prepare itself for every eventuality in case its national convenor is arrested by the agency. However, it has not been shared as to who will lead the party in case Kejriwal is arrested.
Earlier on Wednesday, AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha, while addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has made a plan to put all opposition Chief Ministers in jail to get a freeway in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Chadha said the investigation agencies will first arrest Kejriwal and then go after other Chief Ministers, including Hemant Soren in Jharkhand, Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal and MK Stalin in Tamil Nadu.
Besides Chadha, Delhi ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj also claimed that the BJP has plans to arrest Kejriwal as he has spoken against the government. Meanwhile, many leaders feel that in case Kejriwal is arrested, the party has not thought as to who will lead in his place.
A party leader, who didn't want to be named, said that in case of his arrest, senior leaders of the party will decide on leadership roles. He said that as senior party leaders including Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and Sanjay Singh are already behind bars, the Cabinet may be run from inside the prison as there is no discussion as to who will lead the party. The party leader also claimed that the BJP does not like the growing popularity of AAP as it is a direct threat to them.
The remarks came days after the ED summoned Kejriwal for questioning in the excise policy case, in which AAP leaders Sisodia and Singh have already been arrested. Kejriwal has been summoned by the ED in the alleged excise policy scam for the first time. He was earlier questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the same case in April this year.