The Aam Aadmi Party alleged on Thursday that there was a "huge conspiracy" behind Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of stooping to any level to make him bow down.
The Enforcement Directorate arrested Kejriwal from his residence here on Thursday evening, officials said, shortly after the high court refused to grant the AAP leader protection from coercive action in an excise policy-linked money-laundering case.
Delhi ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj, Atishi and other AAP leaders and workers gathered outside the chief minister's residence.
Security was beefed up around Kejriwal's Civil Lines residence in the evening with the deployment of Rapid Action Force and Central Reserve Police Force units, along with Delhi police personnel, as ED officials reached there.
The leaders and workers raised slogans like "AAP zindabad", "Arvind Kejriwal zindabad" and Arvind bhai tum sangharsh karo, hum tumhare sath hain.
"This entire episode shows how scared Prime Minister Narendra Modi is of Kejriwal. He has hatched a conspiracy to send him to jail before the Lok Sabha election," Atishi told reporters.
She alleged that the ED has become a "political tool" of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
"It is no longer an independent agency. It has become a political tool. Modi knows that if there is any alternative to him in the country, it is only Kejriwal. Delhi's residents consider Kejriwal as their family member and that is why Modi is scared," Atishi said.
In a series of posts on X, the AAP said: "ED reached the house of Delhi's son @ArvindKejriwal! BJP should know that it is trying to move the mountain in whose support the entire country stands today. The people of Delhi are watching everything. No one will sit silent today."
Using the hashtag #IstandWithKejriwal, it said, "The BJP can stoop down to any level to make Arvind Kejriwal bow down. The people of the country including entire Delhi are standing with their hero Arvind Kejriwal today. This dictatorship of yours will not last. And a Kejriwal will emerge from every house."
AAP leader and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said in a post in Hindi on X: "The political team of the BJP (ED) cannot confine Kejriwal's ideology because the AAP alone can stop the BJP. Ideology can never be suppressed."
Bharadwaj said the ED carried out searches at Kejriwal's residence.
"No one in CM house has access to phone now. More police force has arrived. All preparations for arrest of Arvind Kejriwal ji are being made," he said in a series of posts on X. Bharadwaj also shared a video of police placing barricades outside the chief minister's residence.
"Media has also been removed from outside Kejriwalji's residence. Why? If you want to arrest, then do it openly," he said in another post on the microblogging platform.
AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha said Kejriwal has the blessings of crores of people.
"Just before the Lok Sabha election, a big conspiracy is on to arrest Arvind Kejriwal ji.... The wonderful work done in Delhi and Punjab is being discussed all over the world. You can arrest Kejriwal's body but not Kejriwal's thinking," he said in a post in Hindi on X.
Delhi assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, who was also present outside Kejriwal's residence, said everyone is in agreement over the fact that the chief minister will run the government from inside the jail.
Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi echoed similar sentiments as other AAP leaders and said "it is a political conspiracy and the residents of the city love him".
"The BJP thinks if it gets Kejriwal arrested, it will be able to finish the AAP. It is highly mistaken," AAP leader Durgesh Pathak told PTI.
The crowd swelled outside Kejriwal's residence and raised slogans like "tyranny will not last" as they sat on the road to register their protest.
