Kejriwal timed his own arrest: BJP's Bansuri Swaraj reacts to question on likely sympathy wave

Arvind Kejriwal timed his own arrest to coincide with the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Bansuri Swaraj, BJP's candidate for the New Delhi seat, told Moneycontrol in response to a question on a likely sympathy wave for the jailed Delhi Chief Minister.

It was a strategy of Kejriwal to dishonour as many as nine summons so that the central agency is left with no option but to bring him in for custodial interrogation, the daughter of the late BJP stalwart Sushma Swaraj told the publication.

What is also very interesting is that Kejriwal's petition before the Delhi High Court was not a petition for bail, but one for the court to adjudicate whether his arrest is legal or not, Bansuri Swaraj said.


And that's what the court did; it ruled that Kejriwal is responsible in his personal capacity for taking kickbacks in the Delhi excise scam case and therefore his arrest is legal, she added.

The 40-year-old is one of two women candidates fielded by BJP in Delhi, and is also the party's youngest candidate in the capital.

The saffron party is aiming to sweep all seven seats in the national capital for the third time in a row. AAP, on the other hand, is fighting the New Delhi seat as part of its seat-sharing deal with the Congress. It has fielded Somnath Bharti from the seat.

Bansuri's mother Sushma Swaraj was a long-time frontline BJP leader who served as the Delhi chief minister and the Minister of External Affairs. He was a popular leader and a favourite of party workers and supporters. She died in August 2019.