New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday claimed he will be back from the Tihar jail on June 5 if the INDIA bloc comes to power after the election results are announced even as he alleged that efforts were made to break and humiliate him during his prison stay.

Arrested in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, Mr Kejriwal has been granted interim bail by the Supreme Court till June 1 to campaign in the Lok Sabha elections. He will have to surrender and go back to jail on June 2.

June 1 is the last day of the seven-phase elections and the votes will be counted on June 4.

Addressing his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillors, Mr Kejriwal said he was under CCTV surveillance and 13 officers were monitoring the feed.

Talking about the election campaigning of the INDIA bloc, he said for the past few days, he has received plenty of invitations from various parties and candidates of the opposition bloc from all over the country.

“I will try and go to most of the places in the next 21 days to campaign for the INDIA bloc. I have been receiving invitations from individual candidates as well, from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and so on,” he said.

Asking them to work hard, he said, “I have to go back to jail on 2nd June. I will be watching the results on June 4 from the jail. If you work hard and make the INDIA bloc win, I will come back on June 5. If there is any lack of effort, then let’s see when we will meet,” he said.

Mr Kejriwal said when he was arrested, he was feeling that he would have to stay in jail for six to seven months.

“I was mentally prepared for that. I did not expect that I would come back in the middle. Miracle happened. The judgment given by the Supreme Court on Friday seems as if God has performed a miracle,” he said.

The Delhi chief minister, sharing the ordeal of his days in jail, said two CCTV cameras were installed in his cell, “to see what time I wake up, what time I go to bed, what time I eat food, which TV channels I watch, what time I wake up at night and what time I go to the bathroom”.

“These recordings were played in the offices of the 13 officers. These people were continuously monitoring each and everything that I was doing.

“We have also learnt that the jail authority had also given a feed of the same to the Prime Minister’s Office. Modi ji was monitoring the CCTV camera to keep an eye on my activities. Why? Because he wanted to know if Kejriwal was broken,” he claimed.

He asserted that he has the blessings of Lord Hanuman with him and he is not going to break like this.

“I do not know what hatred Modi has harboured against me and the Aam Aadmi Party that he is hell-bent on crushing the Aam Aadmi Party. But Narendra Modi is no God, and God is with us in this fight,” he stressed.

He alleged that he was not given insulin for 15 days.

“I have been suffering from diabetes for 20 years and have been on insulin for 10 years. I have very high sugar levels, and I take 52 units of insulin daily, which is a lot,” he said.

He recalled that when he went to the jail, his sugar level was increasing daily.

“It was then that I started getting worried because if the sugar level remains this high for a long time, then it gradually starts affecting your organs like kidneys and liver, and it can lead to permanent damage. I used to keep requesting the doctors to give me insulin, but they kept delaying,” he charged.

The AAP supremo alleged that the jail authority had once cancelled the meeting with his wife Sunita.

“It is the right of the prisoners to meet their families. Whoever is a prisoner, be it a terrorist, be it a rapist, be it a murderer, they are allowed to meet their family members twice a week.

“One day, the jail authority cancelled the meeting with my wife… Only after there was an uproar about this matter that these people wrote another mail to my wife at 11 am saying that you can have the meeting,” he said.

Exhorting the councillors of his party in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to work harder in their wards, he said the people “love and respect us only because of our work”.

He claimed the BJP tried to poach the party councillors but they stood strong.

Mr Kejriwal said till three months ago, it seemed that the BJP would have more than 400 seats.

“Suddenly many big incidents happened in the last three months. Today, the people in the country are not betting whether they (BJP) will get over 400 seats. The bet is that whether they will get 250 seats or not. What is this? This is a miracle. This is God’s grace,” he said.

New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday addressed his first press conference and held roadshows for the Lok Sabha election campaign, a day after the Supreme Court granted him interim bail for 21 days.

Mr Kejriwal, the national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money-laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy case.

Addressing a press conference at the AAP’s office in the national capital, he revealed why he didn’t resign, a Bharatiya Janata Party’s continuous demand since he was arrested on March 21.

“The chief minister’s post is not important for me. I did not step down as the chief minister because a conspiracy was hatched to force me to resign on a fake case,” Mr Kejriwal said.

आप सब लोगों के बीच वापस लौट कर मुझे बेहद ख़ुशी हो रही है। हमें मिलकर अपने देश को तानाशाही से बचाना है, मैं अपनी पूरी ताक़त से लड़ूँगा, मुझे देश के 140 करोड़ लोगों का समर्थन चाहिए। https://t.co/QbUWA5dBHF

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 11, 2024

The BJP had been attacking the Delhi Chief Minister for not stepping down from the chief minister’s post despite being in custody for 50 days.

ALSO READ | Arvind Kejriwal Can’t Go To Office, Sign Files While Out On Bail

“If the prime minister wants to learn about fighting corruption, he should learn from Arvind Kejriwal. We sent the corrupt to jail and even our own ministers,” the AAP chief said.

“AAP Not Just A Party, It Is A Thought”

Arvind Kejriwal alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “left no stone unturned to crush the AAP by sending its four top leaders to prison”.

He was the fourth senior AAP leader to spend time behind bars after Satyendar Jain, Manish Sisodia, and Sanjay Singh.

“They thought that the party would be finished. But AAP is not just a party, it is a thought, the more they destroy, the more our party will progress,” Mr Kejriwal asserted.

ALSO READ | BJP May Get 220 Seats, Won’t Form Government: Arvind Kejriwal’s Prediction

He told the AAP supporters that no one had expected that he would be able to come out in the middle of the Lok Sabha elections. “But because of your prayers and blessings of Lord Hanuman I am among you all,” he added.

“Kejriwal has fought against corruption. We have not spared even our ministers in corruption cases. They were sent to jail without the opposition and the media knowing about it,” he said.

“Missed People Of Delhi A Lot”

Arvind Kejriwal held his first roadshow for the Lok Sabha election campaign in the South Delhi constituency and said that he “missed the people of Delhi a lot”.

“I have come straight to you after being released from jail. I missed people of Delhi a lot. I want to thank crores of people who prayed and sent blessings to me,” he said.

pic.twitter.com/pLocAzgBFd

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 11, 2024

Mr Kejriwal recalled his 50 days in Tihar jail and said that his wife, Sunita Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, and his ministers used to come to meet him.

“I used to ask my ministers about the welfare of people while in jail. During my stay in jail, I used to think what was my fault that I was arrested. My fault was that I provided good schools and hospitals for people. I provided health facilities to people. They (BJP) stopped my insulin for 15 days in jail,” he said.

“They want to shut everything to paralyse the Delhi government,” he charged.  

तानाशाही के ख़िलाफ़ पूरा देश एकजुट होकर लड़ने को तैयार है। लोकसभा चुनाव प्रचार के दौरान दक्षिण दिल्ली के महरौली में विशाल रोड-शो।
https://t.co/1uOBAc65Af

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 11, 2024

The Supreme Court has granted Arvind Kejriwal interim bail to enable him to campaign in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. He, however, has to surrender on June 2, a day after the last phase of the seven-phase poll will get over.

New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal getting interim bail from the Supreme Court after he challenged his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate is “not less than a miracle”, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Saurabh Bharadwaj told reporters today.

Mr Kejriwal can campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, but has to surrender before the jail authorities on June 2 as the interim bail is valid only till June 1. Votes will be counted on June 4.

“Getting interim bail in 40 days is more than a miracle. Through the Supreme Court, it is a hint from god that whatever is happening in India, a change is needed. Arvind Kejriwal has the blessings of Lord Bajrangbali, and today he will come out of jail. I think it’s not an ordinary thing. He is coming out of jail for a big purpose,” Mr Bharadwarj, flanked by AAP leaders Gopal Rai and Atishi, told reporters.

The AAP said the Supreme Court order is essentially a pushback against a “constitutional threat”.

The parties in the Opposition bloc INDIA have long been accusing the BJP-led central government of using central agencies to harass rivals with false cases.

Once out of jail, Mr Kejriwal will join the INDIA bloc’s election campaigns, though voting in three of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections is over.

A Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said a detailed order explaining why the Supreme Court decided to give interim bail to Mr Kejriwal will be made available later today.

On Thursday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had opposed the interim relief on the grounds that a politician cannot claim a “special status” higher than that of any other citizen, and is as much liable to be arrested and detained for offences as any other citizen.

No political leader has been given interim bail for campaigning, although Mr Kejriwal is not the contesting candidate, the ED said in its affidavit. Even a contesting candidate is never granted interim bail for campaigning if the person is in custody, the ED said.

Mr Kejriwal had gone to the Supreme Court to challenge the Delhi High Court’s April 10 judgment, which dismissed his petition challenging his arrest by the ED.

He was arrested on March 21.