Following the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Kerala’s ruling CPI-M-led LDF and the Opposition Congress-led UDF staged a huge protest in the state on Friday.

The CPI-M held a protest march in Kannur on Friday with party workers burning the effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. CPI-M state secretary MV Govindan, who led the protest, said the arrest brings into memory the dark days of the Emergency.

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He said the country’s electorate would brush aside the dark clouds of authoritarianism threatening the democracy.

The CPI-M took out a protest march in Thiruvananthapuram late on Thursday against the arrest. Senior CPI-M leader M A Baby said the arrest of Kejriwal shows the BJP Government’s blatant authoritarian streak.

In Thiruvananthapuram, Congress Working Committee (CWC) member and the party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Thiruvananthapuram constituency, Shashi Tharoor, led a protest march to Raj Bhavan. Tharoor said both the UDF and LDF in Kerala are united in their opposition to the BJP’s brazen attempt to use Constitutional agencies to tilt the electoral field in favour of the Sangh Parivar-controlled Central government by arresting leaders of Opposition parties.

KPCC president K Sudhakaran accused the BJP of subverting the ED, CBI and the I-T Department to target political rivals. While criticising the arrest of Kejriwal, Sudhakaran asked why the ED had taken no similar action against Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan despite serious charges against the latter. He alleged that the CPI-M and the BJP were political bedfellows in Kerala.

The leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly said Kejriwal’s arrest is a challenge to democracy.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) activists staged a protest march near Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday against the arrest of their leader Arvind Kejriwal. They also took out a protest march to the ED office in Kochi.

Meanwhile, Kerala BJP President K Surendran asked Congress leaders in Kerala whether they would cry foul if the ED arrests Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is facing serious corruption charges

He said the chief minister and his family were facing serious corruption charges. “The Congress has highlighted the accusations at the poll campaign. However, the Central government’s anti-corruption drive has united the corrupt Congress and CPI-M in a single enclosure,” he said.

Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) hours after agency officials reached his residence to record his statement in connection with an excise policy-linked money laundering case on Thursday.