Aam Aadmi Party cadres hit the streets on Friday in almost every state capital against the arrest of their leader Arvind Kejriwal, joined by Congress workers in Kerala and Delhi and by the DMK as well in Tamil Nadu.

Kejriwal defiantly continues as Delhi chief minister in keeping with his party’s pledge to “run the government from Tihar (jail)”. A Delhi court on Friday remanded him in ED custody till March 28.

The AAP has called for protests from Saturday together with its allies, refusing to celebrate Holi and pledging to surround the Prime Minister’s residence on Tuesday.

On Friday morning, several AAP leaders including Delhi ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj and Punjab minister Harjot Bains were detained by police as they tried to march to the BJP central office. Atishi and Bharadwaj are running the government in Kejriwal’s absence — as much as the rules would allow them to.

Party activists did not resist the police, being under instructions from the top not to be provoked into violence, forcibly shutting shops, or blocking roads or railway traffic. “All that backfires,” a party strategist told The Telegraph.

Delhi remained peaceful, if not nonchalant, about the arrest. The AAP understands the city better than its rivals — as proved by its sweep of the last two Assembly polls — and knows that it’s better to seek sympathy than show aggression.

The AAP’s charm offensive on its uneasy allies drew solidarity even from its strongest detractors, Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah.

Even Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee — Kejriwal has avoided speaking in favour of her since her government was accused of corruption — condemned his arrest. “I have personally reached out to Smt Sunita Kejriwal to extend my unwavering support and solidarity,” Mamata wrote on X.

Although the Election Commission of India has no power to intervene in criminal investigations, an INDIA delegation went to the poll panel to complain against the arrest of Kejriwal, and that of Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren earlier.

“Their arrests are meant to send a message straight to the voter that the ruling regime will not countenance any real opposition to (its) electoral ambitions,” they said in their memorandum.

The de facto AAP boss now — former IIT Delhi professor and Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak — told reporters: “I don’t think there will be any difficulty running the government from jail. Even when CM Arvind Kejriwal was outside jail, the central government had imprisoned the entire governance of Delhi.”

As Kejriwal was led to the Rouse Avenue court, he told reporters: “My life is dedicated to the country, whether I stay inside or outside.”

“The government,” a source said, “will be placid. We were defanged by the amendment in law, anyway, and it’s the lieutenant governor now who calls the shots. If the President wants to run Delhi, we will let her. But Arvind won’t resign.”

The AAP is daring the Centre to impose President’s rule, which it feels can only win the party sympathy.

Judge Kaveri Baweja gave the ED Kejriwal’s custody in the liquor policy case after additional solicitor-general S.V. Raju argued the AAP leader was the “kingpin” of the scam and that bribes from liquor cartels were channelled to fund the party’s Goa poll campaign in 2022. Kejriwal’s lawyers contested the charges.

News agency PTI quoted defence counsel Abhishek Singhvi as telling the judge: “Please don’t look at remand as a routine exercise... it requires application of significant judicial mind.... Larger issues of democracy (are) involved.”

The party’s other chief minister, Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann, rushed to Delhi. Several Punjab and Delhi leaders marched from the income-tax office to the chief minister’s Flagstaff Road residence, eventually undoing an unofficial police siege around the house and meeting his family.

Mann referred to the Russian election and accused the government of “following Putin’s path”.

“This is dictatorship…. He has a son and a daughter. They have to take next-level exams. They have to meet someone for the books, but they (ED) are not letting them go out. Visitors to the family have to take permission from the police. What is the fault of his children, his wife?” he said.

AAP Delhi chief and minister Gopal Rai said: “On Shaheedi Diwas (Bhagat Singh’s death anniversary falls on Saturday), Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, along with all AAP MLAs, councillors and office-bearers and INDIA leaders will pledge to save the nation.

“Effigies of PM to be burned across Delhi on March 24, and Holi will not be celebrated on March 25. But instead, a message of saving the nation will be conveyed to people. We will surround the PM’s house and protest there on March 26.”