Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused the BJP of hatching a conspiracy to arrest senior opposition leaders, starting with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, ahead of the upcoming state polls and next year’s general election. Banerjee made these remarks during a press conference in Kolkata, where she claimed that the BJP is trying to silence the voices of opposition parties by arresting their leaders before the elections. She stated, “They are planning to arrest all opposition leaders before polls so they can vote for themselves in an empty country… they are hatching a conspiracy.”
Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over a liquor policy case in Delhi. The ED, which is under the Union Finance Ministry, has already arrested Kejriwal’s deputy, Manish Sisodia, and accused the AAP of kickbacks amounting to Rs 338 crore.
The AAP is prepared for Kejriwal’s arrest, as senior leader and Delhi Minister Atishi has quoted “sources” saying that the Chief Minister will be arrested and put in jail on November 2.
Mamata Banerjee herself is also facing attention from the ED in West Bengal. Bengal Minister Jyotipriya Mallick was arrested last week for his alleged involvement in a ration distribution scam.
AAP MP Raghav Chadha supported Banerjee’s claims and stated that 95% of cases by investigative agencies since 2014 have targeted opposition leaders. He also mentioned that the BJP has a plan to target top leaders from the opposition alliance, and the first arrest will be Chief Minister Kejriwal. This list also includes Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee, who is under investigation by the ED and CBI in various cases, including the coal scam.
Both the AAP and Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress are part of the INDIA alliance, a 28-member bloc formed in July to unite the opposition ahead of upcoming elections.
So far, the BJP has not responded to Banerjee or Chadha’s statements. The opposition has consistently accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party of using investigative agencies under the central government, such as the ED and CBI, to target rival leaders, especially before elections. The government has firmly denied these allegations.
