Lok Sabha elections 2024: Petition in Delhi Court to permit virtual campaigning for arrested leaders
A petition has been submitted in the Delhi High Court to develop a mechanism that facilitates arrested political leaders to campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The initiative will ensure jailed politicians to actively engage in the democratic process.
The plea suggested that politicians could campaign via video conferencing in solution to their physical absence due to their arrest.
The plea, filed by a law student, came in the wake of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest in connection with the alleged irregularities related to the liquor policy case.
The petitioner expressed grievance over the timing of arrests of political leaders, particularly following the announcement of the Model Code of Conduct.
The petitioner, Amarjeet Gupta, has requested directives for the union to provide detailed information about the arrest of a political leader or a candidate immediately to the Election Commission.
The PIL emphasised that voters, particularly in Delhi, are left uninformed during the MCC period due to the inability to learn about the objectives and ideologies of national parties when their leaders are arrested.
Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money-laundering case related to the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy. Since April 1, he has been lodged in Tihar Jail number 2.
Despite being behind bars, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had designated Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as a star campaigner for the Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat. Additionally, the names of senior AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain, both also in jail, were included in the list of 40 star campaigners submitted by AAP to the Election Commission.
In total eighty-nine Lok Sabha seats across 13 states went to polls in the second phase on April 26. The voting is being held in Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Manipur, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Jammu & Kashmir.
