The Supreme Court's order granting interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal comes as a shot in the arm to the Aam Aadmi Party as well as the opposition INDIA. Kejriwal received bail at a time when the campaign for the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital was to pick up.
Kejriwal's release from Tihar jail is expected to change the flavour of the election campaign, especially in Delhi where the AAP is in an alliance with the Congress.
Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate over his alleged role in the purported scam in Delhi's excise policy. The apex court has granted him bail till June 1 and he will have to surrender on June 2. So while he will campaign in the ongoing Lok Sabha election, he will be back in jail when the poll results come out on June 4.
The focus in Delhi is now expected to be on Kejriwal, who is the AAP’s lead campaigner. What he will say in his campaign speeches is now bound to be of great interest. The court has asked him not to respond to questions related to his role in the excise policy case. However, he is expected to take on the BJP forcefully even as his party accords him a hero's welcome and projects him as a leader who has thwarted the alleged attempts of the ruling dispensation at the centre to keep him away from the election campaign.
In his absence, the AAP has been running a campaign on the theme ‘jail ka jawab vote se’ (people will respond to Kejriwal’s imprisonment with their votes). The campaign is expected to undergo a change and focus on Kejriwal getting the better of his political opponents.
The INDIA alliance is hopeful of Kejriwal's arrest having generated public sympathy in their favour. The court’s decision, they hope, will be seen as a vindication of the claim made by the opposition parties that the investigating agencies are being misused to target opposition leaders and vitiate the level playing field in the elections.
