A delegation of leaders from the Opposition INDIA bloc on Friday met the Election Commission to register their protest against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest and the freezing of the Congress’ bank accounts.

The delegation demanded that the poll panel intervene to stop the “targeting of Opposition leaders” by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party through the “misuse” of central investigative agencies, ANI reported. They alleged that the BJP was resorting to "unrelenting, blatant and illegal deployment of central agencies" in a bid to stifle the Opposition.

Congress leaders KC Venugopal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Jitendra Awhad, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury and Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien were among those who met the Election Commission.

Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday in the Delhi liquor policy case. He was the first sitting chief minister to have been arrested in the country.

Earlier on the same day, the Congress said that the Income Tax department had frozen all its bank accounts ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The party said that because of this, it is unable to put out advertisements and its leaders are unable to travel from one part of the country to the other.

Singhvi, after meeting Election Commission officials on Friday, said that the concern of the Opposition leaders was about the Constitution’s basic structure, not about any individual or political party.

“When a level playing field is needed for an election and you do not let the field be leveled by misusing agencies, it impacts free and fair elections and ultimately democracy,” he said.

The Opposition leaders also expressed concern about the arrests of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha, and the Central Bureau of Investigation registering a first information against Trinamool Congress Mahua Moitra, India Today reported.

“..There emerges a clear, deliberate and sinister pattern, where the ruling regime is abusing its power, and completely destroying any semblance of a level playing field for other political parties contesting the Lok Sabha elections,” the INDIA bloc leaders said in a memorandum to the Election Commission.