Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 14: Upbeat over his party’s good showing in the Surat municipal corporation elections recently, the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the Aam Aadmi Party would contest all the 182 seats to the Gujarat state Assembly in the next elections scheduled in December, 2022.
Claiming that the people of Gujarat were “fed up” with the BJP’s 27-year old rule in the state and were looking for an alternative which only the AAP could offer. He described the BJP’s principal rival in the state, the Congress, as only the other side of the same coin the BJP represented and said he change the people were looking for could only be provided by his AAP. “We are here to change Gujarat,” he asserted.
“In the past one year during the Covid-19 pandemic, Gujarat was treated like an orphan. It felt as if there was no one to take care of the state. Today, why are the youth of Gujarat unemployed? Why are they struggling to get admission in schools and colleges? Why are businessmen scared and farmers dying by suicide?” the AAP chief asked while addressing the media at Vallabh Sadan in Ahmedabad on Monday.
Kejriwal, who was in a day’s visit to Gujarat inaugurated the party’s state headquarter in Ahmedabad and also welcomed in the party fold a former journalist Ishudan Gadhavi.
This was Kejriwal’s second visit to the state after his party won 27 of 120 seats in the 2021 Surat Municipal Corporation elections, cutting into the Congress’s share. His party, however, had failed to secure a single seat in any of the other five municipal corporations and municipalities in the state contested by the AAP.
The AAP’s presence in the Assembly elections, however, could only benefit the BJP which was facing people’s wrath for the poor handing of the pandemic situation by the Vijay Rupani government, by splitting the anti-BJP votes.
“People of Gujarat have contributed a lot in the freedom struggle of India. The land of Gujarat has given the biggest leader of this country. Not just leaders, even common people have made huge sacrifices for the country’s freedom. When the country got independence, it was divided into many provinces. It was Sardar Patel who united this country. But after that, for the next 70 years, the Congress and the BJP have done nothing for the state,” Kejriwal claimed.
He added, “Everyone knows that the Congress is in the BJP’s pockets in Gujarat. Even after 75 years of independence, government schools and hospitals are in shambles and the business community is scared. A few years ago, I had lined up a trip to Gujarat after I was invited by a chamber of commerce. However, the authorities forced the organisation to cancel my trip.”
Welcoming Gadhavi, the Delhi CM said, “He has left his career while he was at his peak to serve the people of Gujarat. For the past few years, Gadhvi, through his TV channel, has become the voice of the ‘Aam Gujarati’ as he has been raising their issues. Today, the people of Gujarat relate with him. However, one can only criticise the system while being outside. The people of Gujarat now have an option in Gadhavi. People have started thinking that when the electricity can be free in Delhi, why is it so expensive in Gujarat. We are here to change Gujarat.”
When asked about whether the ‘Delhi model’ of governance will be implemented in the state if AAP comes in power, Kejriwal said, “Every state has its own problems and solutions. The people of Gujarat will choose their own model of development.”
After joining the party, Gadhavi said, “I became a journalist to serve the people and have been raising their issues. We all know that journalists have their limits. We can show the problem but the solution has to be implemented by someone who is within the system. My aim is to serve the people of Gujarat and reciprocate the love shown by them.”
Kejriwal said with the arrival of the AAP, Gujarat was bracing for a change. He added that the entry of Gadhvi would only expedite the process.
Asked who would be the party’s face in Gujarat, he said, “The 60 million people of Gujarat are the face of AAP.” He added, “It is the 20 million people of Delhi who are AAP’s face, not Kejriwal. Kejriwal is a small fry, it is the people.”