Delhi Minister Atishi and top Aam Aadmi Party leaders held a day-long fast at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi with similar protests held across 25 states in the country and in eight other countries as well.
Speaking at the protest on Sunday, Atishi said "Not just in Delhi, but in 25 states of our country, and in 8 countries of the world, AAP workers fasted against his arrest.”
Several party volunteers and supporters took part in the fast in the national capital, singing patriotic songs and waving posters showing an image of Kejriwal behind bars.
Senior AAP leaders, including Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, Deputy Speaker Rakhi Bila, ministers Gopal Rai, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Kailash Gahlot and Imran Hussain attended the day-long 'Samuhik Upwas' at Jantar Mantar from 11 am.
According to party leaders, similar protests were held in other states as well as by Indians abroad, including at Harvard Square in Boston, the Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles, outside the Indian Embassy in Washington DC, in New York Times Square and Toronto, London and Melbourne among others.
Accusing BJP of resorting to dictatorship, the Delhi minister further said, “Arvind Kejriwal's fault is that he gave good education to the children of Delhi, that he gave good healthcare for free, that he gave free Tirth Yatra for senior citizens, and that he gave free bus rides to women. This is why BJP arrested Arvind Kejriwal."
AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, who was recently granted bail by the Supreme Court in the Delhi excise scam case, said “Kejriwal was, is and will remain honest.”
He questioned Kejriwal's arrest by the Enforcement Directorate, claiming the AAP national convener's name was mentioned by just four of 456 witnesses of the CBI and ED probing the case.
"People know very well under what situation these witnesses named Kejriwal," Singh was quoted as saying.
Atishi accused the BJP of resorting to dictatorship and claimed the fast by the AAP will give "sleepless nights" to the saffron party. There was anger among people over Kejriwal's arrest and it will prove to be the "final nail in the coffin" of the BJP, she claimed.
In Punjab, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and several ministers joined a collective fast at freedom fighter Bhagat Singh's village Khatkar Kalan, party leaders said.
The AAP's Delhi unit convenor Gopal Rai had appealed to people to join the fast to protest against Kejriwal's arrest.
Rai alleged that Kejriwal's arrest by the Enforcement Directorate was part of BJP's conspiracy to finish the AAP.
