After Rahul Gandhi's disqualification as MP last month, the CBI summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has became the fresh rallying point for opposition parties ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Several opposition leaders expressed solidarity with Kejriwal after he was summoned by the CBI to appear before it on Sunday in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also dialled Kejriwal on Friday evening, extending his solidarity with the AAP leader and called for like-minded parties to unite on a common platform to defeat the BJP in the next general elections.
Gandhi's disqualification on March 24, a day after his conviction and two-year sentence in a defamation case by a Surat Court, had earlier proved as an issue of binding 20 opposition parties together despite their differences.
Sources said the opposition leaders are going to take this issue forward in a bid to unite strongly against the BJP.
Kharge, who has been reaching out to leaders of opposition parties, will be hosting a meeting of senior leaders of various parties in the next few days and chalk out a common programme.
A day after summons was issued to Kejriwal, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said his Delhi counterpart will reply to "all the actions" initiated against him at an "appropriate time".
"This is the reason that we are making efforts to unite more and more parties in the country against the BJP-led central government. We will make all efforts and work unitedly," he said.
The Bihar chief minister met Kejriwal in Delhi on Wednesday.
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Rajya Sabha member Kapil Sibal also hit out at the BJP over the CBI summoning Kejriwal, alleging that the ruling party wants to establish an "Opposition-free India" and is seeking to "malign" the image of leaders who stand up against it.
Sibal urged all Opposition parties to speak up in one voice against this "misuse" of probe agencies and asserted that it will be difficult to take on the BJP until all such parties stand together.
Kejriwal on his part said he will appear before the CBI in the excise policy case and asserted that if he was "corrupt" then no one in the world was "honest".
He also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, levelling allegations of corruption against him and cited the charges levelled against Modi by former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satyapal Malik.
The CBI has already arrested former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in connection with the excise policy case.
It is alleged that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The policy was later scrapped.
Kejriwal also wrote to his Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin, saying democracy in India is being dealt blows every single day and the country's federal structure is in grave danger.
Responding to a letter from Stalin, Kejriwal also noted that "every tenet" of the India's Constitution stands compromised, be it liberty, equality, secularism, or fraternity.
Meanwhile, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has taken a jibe at Kejriwal for his sue CBI and ED remarks, saying the AAP leader will file a case against the court if convicted.
Kejriwal on Saturday claimed he will sue the CBI and ED officials for alleged perjury and filing false affidavits in courts.