For Satyendar Jain, the timing of his latest arrest carries a strong sense of deja vu. The former Delhi minister and AAP’s Punjab co-incharge has once again been arrested months before an election in a state where he has been given a key organisational responsibility.
Four years later, he has been arrested by the Delhi government’s Anti-Corruption Branch in an alleged Delhi Jal Board tendering case, just months before Punjab goes to polls. Jain made the Punjab connection explicit. The BJP, however, has rejected AAP’s political vendetta charge and has sought to frame the arrest as a corruption investigation. BJP leaders have argued that the Anti-Corruption Branch acted after establishing an alleged money trail in the Delhi Jal Board case. Read: AAP’s Satyendar Jain’s ‘Punjab Polls’ Claim Over His Arrest In Corruption Case The Congress, meanwhile, has continued to attack the AAP leadership over allegations of corruption and the record of the previous Delhi government. The latest arrest has not emerged as a major separate campaign issue for the Punjab Congress.
After his arrest, he said, “This is done because the Punjab election is coming up… this is politics”. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann too alleged that the “only plausible reason” for the action was Jain’s role in Punjab.
