Hindustan Times (East UP)

INDIA BLOC

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agencies are their allies.

AAP Delhi state convener Gopal Rai said the Ramlila Maidan is a historic place which has changed the country’s history several times. “Whenever a crisis has arisen in the country, a voice of change has echoed from here.” “If they (BJP) win the Lok Sabha elections, the country will face consequenc­es. This is a do or die situation for all of us. Take leave from your work for the next two months and put all your efforts to save our democracy,” he said at the rally. Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely said the Lok Sabha elections will decide the future of coming generation­s and what kind of a democracy they live in.

“You arrest a sitting chief minister. You freeze the accounts of the biggest opposition party. What democracy is this? Shaheed Bhagat Singh did not sacrifice his life for this kind of democracy. The 2024 election is neither about AAP, Congress or INDIA bloc or those who discuss elections in their drawing rooms. This election will decide the future of our coming generation­s and what kind of a democracy they live in the future,” he said. Kalpana Soren said she was present at the rally as the voice of “50 per cent of the population of the country -- the women -- and the nine percent tribal population. “We, the tribals, have a long story of struggle and sacrifices. We are proud of our history. The crowd is an evidence that the way autocratic forces are trying to attack democracy, this assembly has gathered against it,” she said. All the guarantees provided by Babasaheb’s Constituti­on are being destroyed by the NDA government, she charged. “One by one they have demolished constituti­onal institutio­ns.”She appealed to people to use their votes “wisely”.

As Sunita Kejriwal read out the letter sent by Arvind Kejriwal, people in the gathering listened to her with attention. “See her voice is shaking, while reading her husband’s letter. She is a true Bharatiya woman,” said Anit Devi, who was one among the crowd.

An Aam Aadmi Party worker said it was very emotional moment for “all of us when Arvind’s wife was reading the letter”.

Every single person listened to all the six promises that Kejriwal wrote about in the letter very carefully and accepted them, said the party worker.

Another party worker, Ram Kishan, said Kejriwal is in jail, but he is still only thinking about the people of the country. “Every single of them.”Speaking at the Maha Rally, senior AAP leader and Delhi minister Gopal Rai questioned the need to arrest Kejriwal, a sitting chief minister, in the liquor policy case. “Protests erupted across the country since his arrest on March 21. No one has a clue yet why a sitting CM had to be arrested. But it isn’t about Kejriwal alone. Before arresting the Delhi CM, his Jharkhand counterpar­t Hemant Soren was arrested (in a land ‘scam’ case) as well. Such misuse of the ED and CBI (against Opposition leaders) has put our democracy in peril,” Rai said at the rally on Sunday.

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