On 10 May, the Indian Supreme Court gave Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal interim bail till
1 Jun, the final phase of voting for the seven-stage 2024 general election. The AAP chief was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on 21 Mar in the alleged Delhi liquor excise policy scam. The ED argued, 'There is no fundamental right that will allow Kejriwal the right to bail to campaign.' Setting a precedent on ‘bail for campaign’ has implications for jailed Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and Sikh leader Amritpal Singh who has filed his papers from Khadoor Sahib, Panjab. Upon release, in his first public address, Kejriwal stated the reason he was jailed was because BJP could not topple AAP govts. in Delhi and Panjab. He also warned voters that the PM Narendra Modi is not seeking votes for himself but for Amit Shah. According to BJP’s own rules, as in the case of LK Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi and others, public figures need to retire by age 75. PM Modi turns 75 in Sep 2025. Shah denied such speculations but it reveals BJP’s hypocrisy: rules are for everyone else. He also warned Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath that he would be dropped as had happened with earlier CMs — Shivraj Singh Chauhan in Madhya Pradesh, Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan, ML Khattar in Haryana, and Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh. On 7 May, INC chief Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to leaders of the INDIA bloc, alleging discrepancies in the voting data of the first three phases released by the Election Commission of India. Now a civic body, Association for Democratic Rights, is moving the Supreme Court on the issue (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 18, Story 2).
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