THE BOOSTER DOSE

Kejriwal’s release from jail has given a fillip to the AAP’s campaign in Delhi and Punjab. Even the INDIA bloc hopes to benefit from the return of this popular Opposition leader

- Avishek G. Dastidar

"What have I done? What is my fault?” Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo, standing up through the sunroof of an SUV, asks a crowd of hundreds of party workers. “My fault is that I constructed schools for your children’s education? My fault is that I have made electricity free for you all? Is that it?” “Yes!” comes the reply from a woman watching the proceedings from a balcony. Kejriwal looks in her direction and smiles in return.

The rally, part of a road show in the Seth Sarai locality in South Delhi’s Mehrauli, is meant to launch Kejriwal’s comeback in the 2024 election battleground, where he has been missing in action after his arrest some seven weeks ago. So, on this summer evening, a day after Kejriwal walked out of the Tihar jail on interim bail, the main Kalka Das Marg cutting through the locality is packed with AAP workers wearing the signature Gandhi cap. Curious men, women and children are on the balconies and rooftops on both sides. The party’s yellow and blue flags and festoons bearing the broom symbol flutter everywhere. Large banners with pictures of the AAP supremo have cropped up. A loudspeaker plays the iconic revolutionary song ‘Mera Rang De Basanti Chola’. Kejriwal doubles down on the subject of his incarceration. “I missed you all while in jail. But yesterday a miracle happened and the Supreme Court freed me to campaign in front of you today,” he says, as the crowd cheers him on.