NEW DELHI: A top opponent of the Hindu-nationalist Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed Sunday to keep fighting “dictatorship” before he returned to jail on Sunday, following elections widely expected to produce another victory for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi and a prominent figure in the opposition alliance, is among several opposition leaders under criminal investigation, with colleagues describing his arrest the month before the general elections began in April as a “political conspiracy” planned by Modi’s ruling BJP.
Arvind Kejriwal is challenging Modi’s BJP and vowed to continue his fight against what he termed as “dictatorship” as he bid farewell to supporters before heading back to incarceration.
Kejriwal’s arrest in March on charges related to a corruption probe, which he and his colleagues denounce as a political maneuver planned by the ruling BJP, underscores the contentious nature of Indian politics. He was later released and allowed to campaign but ordered to return to jail once voting ended.
Addressing his supporters, Kejriwal affirmed his commitment to continue his struggle from behind bars, declaring, “When power becomes a dictatorship, then jail becomes a responsibility.” Despite the uncertainty surrounding his return, Kejriwal’s resolve remains unyielding as he pledges every drop of his blood to the country.
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“I don’t know when I will return,” he told supporters in an emotional departure speech at his Aam Aadmi party headquarters. “I don’t know what they will do to me… every drop of my blood is for the country.”
Meanwhile, exit polls show that Modi’s reelection is all but certain, with the prime minister expressing confidence in the electorate’s support. “His government is coming back,” said Nand Lal, selling flowers outside a temple.
Results are expected Tuesday but supporters of Modi in his constituency of Varanasi — the spiritual capital of the Hindu faith — said they believed their leader’s win was secure.
The polling, spanning six weeks across India, concluded amid scorching temperatures that killed at least 33 polling staff due to heatstroke in Uttar Pradesh alone.
While the opposition’s efforts to dislodge Modi faced setbacks with Kejriwal’s return to jail, concerns continue regarding the state of democracy in India. International rights groups, including US think tank Freedom House, have raised alarms over the BJP’s misuse of government institutions to target political adversaries.
India’s top court granted Kejriwal bail last month, giving a fleeting boost to the opposition’s quixotic campaign to oust Modi, but ordered him to return to custody after the election.
Kejriwal, 55, has been chief minister for nearly a decade and first came to office as a staunch anti-corruption crusader.
His government was accused of corruption when it implemented a policy to liberalise the sale of liquor in 2021 and give up a lucrative government stake in the sector.
The policy was withdrawn the following year but the resulting probe into the alleged corrupt allocation of licences has since led to the jailing of two top Kejriwal allies.
“All of you, take care of yourselves,” Kejriwal, who has consistently denied wrongdoing and refused to relinquish his post, said earlier on social media. “I will take care of you all in jail.”
Arrests and legal battles involving prominent opposition figures, such as Rahul Gandhi and Hemant Soren, further underscore the challenges confronting India’s democratic institutions. Despite being members of an opposition alliance comprising over two dozen parties, the bloc struggled to gain significant traction against Modi’s political juggernaut.
Rahul Gandhi, the most prominent member of the opposition Congress party and scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades, was convicted of criminal libel last year after a complaint by a member of Modi’s party.
His two-year prison sentence saw him disqualified from parliament until the verdict was suspended by a higher court and raised concerns over democratic norms in the world’s most populous country.
Hemant Soren, the former chief minister of the eastern state of Jharkhand, was also arrested in February in a separate corruption probe.
