INDIA parties stage protest in Mumbai, call Kejriwal's arrest 'illegal', 'unjustified'

Mumbai: Opposition INDIA bloc parties staged a protest in Mumbai on Friday against the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in an excise policy-linked money laundering case and called the ED action "illegal" and "unjustified".

Demonstrators held a 'satyagraha' (a form of non-violent resistance) at south Mumbai's Azad Maidan and called for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s resounding defeat in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The anti-BJP grouping consisting of more than two dozen parties reiterated commitment to their united struggle against the Modi government's "tyranny". Political workers cutting across party lines braved the scorching heat to register their protest against Kejriwal's arrest by the Enforcement Directorate last week.

The Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is a constituent of INDIA, which was formed last year to take on the BJP and the Lok Sabha polls.

In attendance at the protest site were Varsha Gaikwad, Mumbai Congress president, Bhai Jagtap Congress MLC, Preeti Sharma-Menon, AAP Mumbai chief, Rakhee Jadhav, Mumbai head of NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), Vidya Chavan of NCP(SP), Shailendra Kamble of CPI-M, Samya Korde of Peasants and Workers Party of India and a few other leaders of INDIA.

Sharma-Menon said the previous arrest of former Delhi ministers and AAP politicians Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain has disrupted the work they were doing in the education and healthcare fields, respectively.

"It is not Manish Sisodia who is in jail, it is education (portfolio held by him as deputy CM) in India that is in jail. It is not Satyendar Jain who is in jail, it is healthcare that is in jail. And it is not Arvind Kejriwal who is in jail, it is India's hope that has been imprisoned," she maintained.

The AAP leader asserted Kejriwal's arrest has galvanized the masses.

"This is not about Arvind Kejriwal or the Aam Aadmi Party, it is the people of India versus Narendra Modi. Kejriwal's arrest has galvanized the Indian masses. INDIA parties will unitedly defeat the BJP and end Modi's tyrannical rule. We will save our country, we will save our Constitution. We will prevail," said Sharma-Menon.