New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal will not be able to meet him in Tihar jail on Monday. The jail authorities have refused permission for the scheduled visit, Mr Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party has claimed.

Sources said that the Tihar Jail administration has cited the visit of Delhi Minister Atishi, who will meet the Chief Minister on Monday.
On Tuesday, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is coming to meet him.

Sources said jail rules say two people can come to meet a jailed person at a time.

When Mr Mann went to meet Mr Kejriwal in Tihar Jail on April 15, AAP’s Organisation General Secretary Sandeep Pathak accompanied him.

Sources in Tihar Jail said after the meeting with Atishi and Bhagwant Mann, Sunita Kejriwal could be allowed to meet Mr Kejriwal After  Tuesday. 

Jail rules, however, say only two visits can be allowed in a week. So if Atishi meets Arvind Kejriwal on Monday and Bhagwant Mann meets him on Tuesday, then no other meeting with Arvind Kejriwal can be held in this week.

It is possible that Sunita Kejriwal will only be allowed to meet him next week. 

Mr Kejriwal has been in jail since April 1. He was arrested on March 21 in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case.

His stay in Tihar has been marked by a massive row over his diabetes and medication, with the Chief Minister and his party alleging that the authorities had withheld medication since his arrest. The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that Mr Kejriwal has been eating food that is inappropriate for diabetics.

On Saturday, Sunita Kejriwal led her maiden roadshow in Delhi, campaigning for the Lok Sabha election. The massive roadshow was held in support of the AAP’s East Delhi candidate. The party is contesting four of Delhi’s seven constituencies. The Congress will contest the other three.

In Mr Kejriwal’s absence, she is expected to spearhead the party’s campaign in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat.

New Delhi:

Blue and yellow flags and banners of the Aam Aadmi Party painted Delhi’s Kalyanpuri area on Saturday as hundreds of women donning caps and scarfs with the party’s logo attended Sunita Kejriwal’s maiden roadshow amid “Jail ke tale tutengey, Kejriwal chhutengey” slogans.

Standing through the sunroof of a vehicle, Sunita Kejriwal, whose husband and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest pushed her to the forefront of the AAP’s Lok Sabha poll campaign, greeted locals in the Kondli area of East Delhi constituency with folded hands. She was campaigning for AAP’s East Delhi candidate Kuldeep Kumar.

As the carcade snaked through the narrow lanes with a sea of AAP supporters carrying the Delhi chief minister’s cut-outs, she shook hands with several women and targeted the ruling BJP at the Centre, saying her husband was jailed because he built schools, provided free electricity and opened Mohalla Clinics in the national capital.

Arvind Kejriwal, AAP’s national convenor, is behind bars in a money laundering case, linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy, currently being investigated by federal agencies.

Flanked by leaders of the Congress, the AAP’s partner in the opposition INDIA bloc and ally for the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi, Sunita Kejriwal asserted that their alliance will sweep all seats in the national capital as loudspeakers blared patriotic songs.

Folk artists from Uttarakhand were seen performing in the roadshow and raising slogans of ‘Jail ka jawab vote se‘ amid beats of Nashik dhols.

As the roadshow passed through the area, locals lined up the streets to greet the chief minister’s wife. Vimla Devi, one of the residents of the area, claimed the arrest of the chief minister just before the elections was not right.

“We feel that the INDIA alliance will sweep the Lok Sabha polls since the chief minister is seeking votes on (the plank of) development. He has given citizens of the national capital a lot of facilities. People will surely vote in his favour,” she added.

A resident of the Khichadipur area, Sonu Kumar claimed that voting for the ongoing election seems to have been “fixed”.

“The chief minister of Delhi was focusing on development and also asking people to vote for him to further the development of the national capital. The arrest of the sitting CM just before the elections seems to be a political move,” he said.

Rajkumar, a resident, said although he supported the arrest of Kejriwal, the timing could have been better. “It should have happened earlier if he has done something wrong,” he added.

His brother Rajesh Kumar claimed that the step would surely affect the BJP in the elections.

Kishan Lal, who is a first-time voter, said he wanted AAP to win in Delhi even though he was against the opposition alliance. “I am not in favour of this alliance, but want AAP to win all seven seats (in Delhi) in this election,” he added.

Another local, Shriprakash Prasad, who runs a shop in the locality, said that the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal would surely affect the elections as it seems like people will vote in his favour.

“Everyone is happy with Kejriwal and since his wife is campaigning for him, he will also get a good amount of sympathy votes,” Mr Prasad said.

Anwari, who shook hands with Sunita Kejriwal, said, “I am very happy that the wife of the chief minister greeted me and also shook hands with me. The crowd at the roadshow was large and this shows that people will also go in large numbers to support them on May 25.” Voting in all seven Lok Sabha constituencies in Delhi will be held in the sixth phase of the general election on May 25.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita – who entered the political battleground with fiery speeches at INDIA bloc’s rallies last month – will now lead the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s campaign for the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi and other states.

Sunita Kejriwal will hold a mega roadshow in the national capital today in support of AAP’s East Delhi candidate Kuldeep Kumar. “In protest against the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal, his wife Sunita Kejriwal will campaign to seek blessings for him and to seek votes for AAP candidates. She will seek blessings for him from the people of Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat and Haryana,” Delhi Minister Atishi said.

Ms Kejriwal is gradually assuming a bigger role in the party to give a boost to the AAP’s campaigning, which has been affected by the Chief Minister’s arrest in March, party sources said.

AAP Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said that Ms Kejriwal is the best person to keep the party together in the prevailing circumstances and asserted that her presence has had a “positive effect” on the party workers.

Ms Kejriwal last month took part in the INDIA bloc’s mega rallies in Delhi and Ranchi, which saw the opposition camp launch a fierce attack on the BJP for allegedly misusing central agencies to harass opposition-ruled states.

She has so far held three digital media briefings mainly focused on communicating Arvind Kejriwal’s messages to the people. 

Mr Kejriwal was arrested last month by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to the liquor policy scam. He remains the Chief Minister even after his arrest with the AAP asserting no law stops him from running the government from jail.

Sunita Kejriwal is a former Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer who served in the income tax department for 22 years. She met Arvind Kejriwal during a training programme in Bhopal. She is from the 1994 batch, while Arvind Kejriwal is a 1995-batch officer.

She took voluntary retirement in 2016. Her last posting was at the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in Delhi where she served as the income tax commissioner.

The arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and JMM’s Hemant Soren has put their wives in the limelight. Sunita Kejriwal and Kalpana Soren have become important faces in the INDIA camp in the absence of their spouses during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, hinting that they are ready for larger political roles.

They joined other INDIA bloc leaders at a rally in Ranchi yesterday, which saw the opposition camp launch a fierce attack on the BJP for allegedly misusing central agencies to harass opposition-ruled states.

Two chairs were left empty on stage for Mr Kejriwal and Mr Soren – with their name tags on – as their spouses were seated on the dais.

The ‘Ulgulan Nyay Mahrally’, organised by the JMM amid the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, served as a major show of strength that saw the leaders of 28 political parties in attendance, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Tejashwi Yadav, Bhagwant Mann, and Akhilesh Yadav.

Sunita Kejriwal, lashing out at the government in her speech, alleged that her diabetic husband was being denied insulin in jail, a claim earlier made by the Aam Aadmi Party.

“They want to kill my husband Arvind Kejriwal. His food is under camera observation; he is denied insulin. My husband is a sugar patient who has been on insulin for the last 12 years; he needs 50 units of insulin daily,” she said at the rally.

Claiming that no charges could be proved against her husband, she asserted that they will win their “fight against dictatorship”. “The gates of jail will break and Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren will come out,” asserted Ms Kejriwal.

Ms Soren also accused the BJP of trying to topple governments in states where opposition parties are in power, which she claimed led to the arrest of Mr Kejriwal and Mr Soren just before the elections.

At the rally, she also read out a message from her husband: “Central agencies such as the ED and CBI are being misused to suppress the opposition’s voice but BJP and such forces will be driven out.”

Mr Kejriwal was arrested last month by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to the liquor policy scam. He remains the Chief Minister even after his arrest with the AAP asserting no law stops him from running the government from jail.

Mr Soren had resigned from the top post before his arrest in January by the ED in a laundering case linked to an alleged land fraud. JMM leader Champai Soren replaced him as the Chief Minister in February amid speculations that Ms Soren could take over her husband’s post.

Ranchi:

Two empty chairs – one each for jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren – were kept on stage as the INDIA bloc organised a mega rally in Ranchi on Sunday.

The ‘Ulgulan Nyay Mahrally’ was organised mainly by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and a large number of its workers wore Mr Soren’s masks.

Mr Soren was arrested on January 31 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land fraud. The same central agency also arrested Mr Kejriwal on March 21 associated with the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam.

Though chairs for the JMM executive president and AAP supremo were kept empty, their wives Kalpana Soren and Sunita Kejriwal were seated on the dais. They are apparently set for their larger political role following the arrest of their spouses.

INDIA परिवार ने अपने वरिष्ठ नेताओं के प्रति दिखाया सम्मान

Delhi CM @ArvindKejriwal जी व Jharkhand के पूर्व CM @HemantSorenJMM जी के लिए मंच पर आरक्षित रखी कुर्सियां।#UlgulanNyayMahaRallypic.twitter.com/DCYGyDZaJ6

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) April 21, 2024

The crowd raised slogans like “Jail ka tala tutega, Hemant Soren chutega” (The jail lock will be broken, Hemant Soren will be released) and “Jharkhand Jhukega Nahi” (Jharkhand will not bow down).”

The workers assembled for the ‘Ulgulan Nyay Mahrally’ braving scorching heat as the Jharkhand capital’s temperature was hovering around 40 degrees Celcius.

Besides Kalpana and Sunita, JMM supremo Shibu Soren, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, RJD leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and others attended the rally in a mega show of strength for the opposition bloc.

A total of 28 political parties took part in the rally, which was held at the Prabhat Tara Ground.

The word ‘Ulugulan’, which means revolution, was coined during Birsa Munda’s fight against the British for the rights of the tribals.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj has said that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita is the best person to keep the party together in the prevailing circumstances and asserted that her presence has had a “positive effect” on the cadre.

In an interaction with news agency PTI editors at the agency’s headquarters, Mr Bharadwaj, who is also a cabinet minister in the Delhi government, said Sunita Kejriwal has always said that she is the “messenger” of the Delhi Chief Minister who is currently in jail.

Noting that the politics of a party does not just revolve around its manifesto, Mr Bharadwaj said the support base and the emotional connection between the cadre and the top leadership also plays a crucial role in keeping an organisation together.

“Sunita Kejriwal’s presence has had a positive impact,” he adderted.

“She is delivering the messages of Arvind Kejriwal ji. This has had a great impact on our party cadre and among our sympathisers. We want to propagate it. In the present circumstances, she is the best person to keep the party together,” Mr Bharadwaj said.

Arvind Kejriwal, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering case linked to the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy, is in judicial custody till April 15.

His wife has addressed three digital briefings so far, in which she read out his messages from the Enforcement Directorate custody and Tihar Jail.

In a political debut of sorts, she read out his message at the INDIA bloc ‘maharally’ on March 31.

Asked if Sunita Kejriwal will campaign for the party in the Lok Sabha polls, he said, “We would love if this thing happens… if Sunita ji does take part in campaigning but it is her personal decision.”

On further prodding whether there was some kind of “messaging” in Sunita Kejriwal taking centre stage after her husband’s arrest, the minister replied in the negative.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, who too was arrested in the excise policy case and received bail on Wednesday, had met Sunita Kejriwal immediately after getting out of jail and was seen touching her feet.

Talking about it, the minister said if someone’s elder brother is in some difficulty, he is duty-bound to look after his family.

“This is our culture. The BJP was saying that there would be fights among the party members after Kejriwal’s arrest. Sanjay Singh considers Arvind Kejriwal his family, his elder brother. So, he touched her (Sunita Kejriwal) feet. We are working as one unit and one family,” he said.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

When Arvind Kejriwal’s wife, Sunita, delivered another message from the jailed chief minister to the people of Delhi on Thursday, what stood out was the background in her video statement. In all her addresses so far, the backdrop had portraits of legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh and the Father of the Indian Constitution, BR Ambedkar, but there was a new addition between them in the latest video – a picture of Arvind Kejriwal with bars in front of him to signify his imprisonment.

“Mr Kejriwal has sent a message to all of you from jail: ‘I am in prison but no person in Delhi should have to suffer because of that. Every MLA should visit their constituencies every day and ask people if they are facing any problems. They should sort those problems out. I am not just talking about solving problems related to the government, we should attempt to solve their other problems too. The 2 crore people of Delhi are my family. No one should be unhappy. God bless them all. Jai Hind,'” Ms Kejriwal said in Hindi. 

जेल से CM @ArvindKejriwal जी का अपने सभी विधायकों के लिए संदेश। Smt. @KejriwalSunita Addressing an Important Press Conference l LIVE https://t.co/kCINkxUTza

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) April 4, 2024

The photo of the AAP chief in the message was also noted by the BJP, which accused Mr Kejriwal of attempting to mislead the people of Delhi. 

“It is very regrettable that the portrait of a corrupt person, Arvind Kejriwal, was hanging between those of Bhagat Singh ji and Babasaheb Ambedkar ji. Earlier, the husband used to lie in front of the camera. Now that he is in jail, he is making his wife lie. The public is not going to be misled by the AAP,” BJP Delhi President Virendra Sachdeva posted in Hindi on X.

After Mr Kejriwal’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi liquor policy case on March 21, his wife has been delivering messages from him to the people of Delhi and also during the ‘Save Democracy’ rally on Sunday, which was a show of strength by the opposition INDIA bloc. 

In his first message two days after his arrest, Mr Kejriwal had said, “There are several forces within and outside India that are weakening the country. There is no jail that can keep him behind bars for long. I will come out soon and keep my promises.”

During Sunday’s rally, the chief minister’s wife had read out his six guarantees to the people of Delhi ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and said the people of India were standing with her jailed husband. 

The AAP chief has been sent to judicial custody till April 15, and the Delhi High Court is hearing a petition filed by him against his arrest. The court had reserved its judgment in the case on Wednesday. 

In a separate hearing seeking Mr Kejriwal’s removal as the chief minister after his arrest, a bench of the high court dismissed the petition on Thursday and said that democracy should take its own course. 

New Delhi:

Jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita today entered the political battleground with a fiery speech that attacked the BJP-led central government over allegedly targeting the Opposition with central agencies ahead of the national election.

At a massive rally in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan where leaders of the Opposition INDIA bloc including Rahul Gandhi, Uddhav Thackeray, Mehbooba Mufti, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Akhilesh Yadav, among others, attended, Sunita Kejriwal read out a message sent by her jailed husband.

“The people of India stand with Arvind Kejriwal. He can’t be kept in jail forever,” Sunita Kejriwal said today in her first major political speech ever in front of hundreds of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supporters.

“I am not asking for votes from you. I am not asking you to help defeat someone in elections. I am only asking 140 crore Indians to help in taking this country forward,” Sunita Kejriwal said, quoting her husband’s message from jail.

New Delhi:

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri today took a swipe at jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as someone who has “very limited time”, alluding to the end of his chief ministership.

Mr Puri said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief’s wife, Sunita Kejriwal, is likely preparing to take the top post soon. “Kejriwal’s wife was not only a colleague in the revenue service. They have sidelined everyone. Now madam is likely preparing for the top post,” the Housing and Urban Affairs Minister told reporters in Delhi today.

“Kejriwal didn’t answer summons nine times. Then the Enforcement Directorate officers went to his house. Let it be, Kejriwal’s time is very limited,” said Mr Puri, who is also the Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister.

Mr Kejriwal has been arrested over alleged money laundering in framing the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy case. His custody with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was extended by four days yesterday.

The Union Minister also criticised the Congress for protesting over legitimate tax demand. “Everyone has to file tax returns. Their revenue has only been increasing,” he said.

The Congress received a Rs 1,700 crore notice from the Income Tax Department, a day after the Delhi High Court dismissed the party’s petition challenging the tax notices. The fresh notice is for assessment years 2017-18 to 2020-21, and includes penalty and interest.

Referring to a planned protest by the Opposition INDIA bloc on March 31, Mr Puri said, “Their time is over. Talk about them in the past tense.”

While Mr Kejriwal is in the ED custody, his wife Sunita Kejriwal today made her third video announcement on his behalf, announcing a “Kejriwal ko aashirwad” campaign. She shared a WhatsApp number and asked people to send messages for Mr Kejriwal.

Sunita Kejriwal is a former Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer, who served in the Income Tax department for 22 years. She met Arvind Kejriwal during a training programme in Bhopal. She is from the 1994 batch, while her husband is from the 1995 batch.

New Delhi:

Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the Delhi liquor policy case raised the question – who will be the next Delhi Chief Minister? The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) says he continues to govern from jail. Arvind Kejriwal’s chosen messenger, however, is wife Sunita Kejriwal.

Sunita Kejriwal today made her third video announcement on behalf of the AAP chief, announcing a “Kejriwal ko aashirwad” campaign and urging people to share messages on a WhatsApp number shared by her. The latest video provoked a sharp attack from the ruling BJP, with Union Minister Hardeep Puri today saying Sunita Kejriwal “is preparing for the role of Chief Minister”.

केजरीवाल जी को आशीर्वाद देने के लिए आप इस नम्बर पर WhatsApp करें – 8297324624 l Smt. @KejriwalSunita Addressing an Important Press Conference | LIVE https://t.co/eAbIiUgJO3

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) March 29, 2024

Here are 5 facts on Sunita Kejriwal:

• Sunita Kejriwal is a former Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer, who served in the Income Tax (I-T) department for 22 years.
• She met Arvind Kejriwal during a training programme in Bhopal. Sunita is from a 1994 batch IRS officer, while Mr Kejriwal is a 1995-batch officer.
• The 58-year-old opted for voluntary retirement from the I-T department in 2016. Her last posting was at the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in Delhi where she served as the Income Tax Commissioner.
• She was often seen with Arvind Kejriwal during the Indian Against Corruption movement, and during the early days of the Aam Aadmi Party. She even took a leave from office to help Mr Kejriwal contest against Narendra Modi from Varanasi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
• After a thumping win in the 2015 Delhi assembly polls, where AAP secured 67 of the 70 seats, Arvind Kejriwal’s first tweet was dedicated to Sunita. “Thank u Sunita for always being there,” he had posted.