With Bail To Arvind Kejriwal, AAP Gets Boost Ahead Of Haryana Polls

Having been granted bail to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, Delhi Chief Minister and Arvind Kejriwal will be released from jail again just ahead of the Assembly elections in Haryana, which is being seen as a big boost for the AAP in a state where it is hoping to do well. 

The party erupted in joy after a Supreme Court granted him bail in the Delhi excise policy case on Friday, noting that his "prolonged incarceration amounts to unjust deprivation of liberty", and the AAP Haryana handle posted a video of Mr Kejriwal with a fire emoji, writing: "He is back". 

AAP's Haryana unit chief Sushil Gupta said Mr Kejriwal would campaign in the state, adding that the people are looking for a change. "We will now fight the polls with double energy. Kejriwal ji will soon start his campaign in Haryana," he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

"People are looking for a 'badlav' (change), they want to elect an honest government, which can ensure good education and health facilities, round-the-clock power supply and overall development... People want to bring the AAP to power and we will win the polls," Mr Gupta added.

Voting will be held in all of Haryana's 90 Assembly constituencies on October 5 and the AAP released its sixth list of 19 candidates on Thursday, the last day for filing nominations. The party is contesting 89 seats after its talks of an alliance with INDIA partner Congress fell through. The AAP had sought to contest at least 10 seats as part of the alliance but the Congress was willing to give up only five to seven.

The state unit of the Congress had, in fact, reportedly been against a tie-up with the AAP but talks had been held at the insistence of senior leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, who had said that it would prevent a division of votes and give the opposition its best chance of defeating the BJP.

The BJP has ruled in Haryana since 2014 but the opposition has been buoyed by its performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls, where the state's 10 seats were split evenly between the BJP and the Congress after a clean sweep by the BJP in 2019. Opposition parties are also hoping that they can capitalise on the discontent among farmers, who have been protesting seeking a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP), anger over the Agnipath scheme for recruitment in the armed forces and the anger among athletes following the protest against former BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh by wrestlers last year. 

While the AAP had lost the lone Lok Sabha seat - Kurukshetra - it had contested by a margin of 29,000 votes, the party believes it can do well because it is in power in Delhi and Punjab, two states that border Haryana, where, its leaders claim, people are happy with its policies. 

Along these lines, campaigning in the Asandh Assembly constituency on Thursday, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha had made a "triple-engine" pitch for development.

"On one side of Haryana there's Punjab which has an AAP government and on the other side there's Delhi with an AAP government too. If the AAP government is formed in Haryana then a triple engine of development will run in the state," he had said. 

"We listen on the radio, Mirchi sunne waale always khush (Those who listen to Mirchi are always happy). Similarly, Kejriwal ko chunne wala always khush (Those who choose Kejriwal are always happy)," the MP had added.