Protesters blocked a busy New Delhi road intersection.
Mr. Kejriwal's government has been accused of corruption in the 2021 awarding of private alcohol sales licenses.
This Liberalization policy was halted in 2022 and the subsequent investigation into alleged corruption in licensing resulted in the imprisonment of two senior members of Mr. Kejriwal.
Mr. Kejriwal, 55, Delhi's chief minister for nearly a decade, had resisted several summons from the Enforcement Directorate to be questioned in connection with the probe.
He is among the top opposition leaders facing criminal investigations that supporters say are motivated by political considerations
We have made it clear from the beginning that, if necessary, Arvind Kejriwal will lead the government from prison, Singh told reporters. Tamil Nadu leader M.K. Stalin, another member of the opposition bloc, said Kejriwal's arrest resembles a desperate witch hunt.
But Rajeev Chandrashekhar, a minister in the Modi government, responded that the opposition's reaction to Kejriwal's arrest was extremely surprising.
Arvind Kejriwal should understand… that the consequences of his violation do not stop just because you are a political leader, he told the Press Trust of India news agency.< /p>
Modi's political opponents and international rights groups have long sounded the alarm about shrinking democratic space in India.
The American democracy think tank Freedom House estimated this year that the BJP had increasingly used government institutions to target its political opponents.
Rahul Gandhi, a member of Congress, the main opposition party and scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades, was convicted of defamation last year following ;a complaint filed by a member of Mr Modi's party.
AAP, Congress and two dozen other parties have formed an opposition coalition ahead of the vote which will take place between April and June.
A delegation from the bloc met the electoral commission on Friday India to condemn what it called deliberate attempts to undermine the opposition campaign.
Many analysts consider the Modi's re-election as a given, in part because of the resonance of his assertive Hindu nationalist policies with members of the country's majority faith.
Natasha Kumar has been a reporter on the news desk since 2018. Before that she wrote about young adolescence and family dynamics for Styles and was the legal affairs correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining The Times Hub, Natasha Kumar worked as a staff writer at the Village Voice and a freelancer for Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, GQ and Mirabella. To get in touch, contact me through my natasha@thetimeshub.in 1-800-268-7116