NEW DELHI: Resuming his election campaign after coming out of jail, AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will hold a road show in South Delhi on Saturday with his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann, party functionaries said.
They said bail granted to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Supreme Court on Friday will give a massive boost to both the AAP and the INDIA bloc’s campaign as the Lok Sabha polls enter the crucial phases in the coming weeks, Hinting at a rise in the stature of Kejriwal as a top INDIA grouping leader, Senior AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said he will go all over the country to campaign.
AAP leaders said the party will decide on the campaign schedule of the Delhi chief minister keeping in mind demands of INDIA bloc partners for his canvassing in other states.
Minutes after the apex court's order, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in a post on X said it will be "very helpful" in the context of the Lok Sabha polls.
The major chunk of 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Punjab and Delhi, out of the total 22 seats contested by the AAP across the country, will go to polls on May 25 and June 1.
The Supreme Court earlier granted Kejriwal interim bail till June 1 to campaign in the Lok Sabha elections.
Kejriwal, arrested in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, will have to surrender and go back to jail on June 2. June 1 is the last day of the seven-phase elections. The votes will be counted on June 4.
Within hours of the interim bail granted to Kejriwal by the apex court, the AAP was running 'Jail Ka Jawab Vote Se' campaign, and its leaders started posting comments and videos on social media platforms using hashtag #ModiCantStopKejriwal.
The Aam Aadmi Party is independently fighting all the 13 seats in Punjab, and four out of seven in Delhi in a seat-sharing pact with its INDIA bloc partner Congress.
The elections are now at a stage where most of the political pundits do not know which way they are going, Bharadwaj said.
"The BJP has lost its sheen and is changing its narrative everyday. They are clueless. So this is the time when somebody like Kejriwal was needed to change the narrative in the favour of the INDIA bloc," he said.
In absence of Kejriwal who was arrested by the enforcement directorate (ED) on March 21 and lodged in Tihar jail under judicial custody since April 1, his wife Sunita Kejriwal was campaigning for party candidates in Delhi and Gujarat. She was also scheduled to campaign in Punjab and Haryana where party is contesting the Kurkshetra seat.
"You will find him campaigning from tomorrow. His only goal is that dictatorship in the country should end. His interim bail is perhaps a divine hint that the dictatorship in the country should go," senior AAP leader and Delhi minister Atishi told PTI Videos.
Bharadwaj said the BJP understood the potential of Kejriwal so it deployed ”legal artillery" to oppose his bail.
"This will be a big boost to the INDIA bloc. Finally, due to divine intervention and blessings of Lord Hanuman, Kejriwal is out (of jail) and he will be roaring like a lion," Bharadwaj, told PTI videos.
He said Kejriwal was an "exceptional communicator" having the power to connect with the masses in a simple language.
"His coming out (of jail) on bail will be a game changer for INDIA bloc. The three phases of polls so far have now prepared the ground for his entry into campaigning for the elections," he said.
While giving Kejriwal interim bail, the apex court said that he cannot visit his office or the Delhi Secretariat during the tenure of his interim bail as part of the bail conditions.
It asked Kejriwal not to sign any official file unless absolutely necessary to obtain the Lieutenant Governor's sanction during the 21-day interim bail period.