The compulsions of the electoral politics forced BS Cheema, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate from Nainital lok Sabha constituency, to take a U-turn on his earlier stance of not seeking bail. Cheema who was arrested on charges of violating prohibitory orders under Sections 144 on April 20 was granted bail by the court on Monday, but was not released from the Haldwani jail where he is kept till the time of writing of this report.
The AAP leader and party spokesperson Umesh Tiwari told The Pioneer that the party decided to seek bail as Cheema was not allowed to meet anyone. He alleged that administration deliberately prevented all the communication with Cheema and the party workers were worried for his health also. Tiwari said that the people of Nainital- Udhamsingh Nagar constituency are outraged by the arrest of Cheema and are firmly behind him.
Cheema who is a noted poet and is referred as Jan Kavi (poet of masses) had refused to seek bail along with two of his supporters Pratap Singh and Pankaj Pandey against their arrest. Cheema also started penning his anguish in form of poems in the jail. The political observers are of the opinion that the AAP was worried by the hampering of the election campaigning of Cheema caused due to his arrest and revised its earlier stand of not seeking bail.
The arrest of Cheema was made a big issue by AAP, the State convener of party HC Arya even alleged that Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat and former Chief Minister B S Koshyari who is the BJP candidate from Nainital lok Sabha seat in the forthcoming general elections have entered into a secret understanding and colluded with some Government officials to arrest Cheema as they were worried by growing popularity of Cheema and AAP.