- Friday, June 28, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Shubham Ghosh
DELHI Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday (14) said that his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will contest all 182 seats in the 2022 Assembly elections in Gujarat. Kejriwal, who is the party’s chief, made the announcement during a visit to the western Indian state. Kejriwal said on Twitter “Gujarat will change” before paying visit to the state where the Bharatiya Janata Party is in charge since 1998 when Keshubhai Patel took over as the chief minister.
During his address to the media at Vallabh Sadan in Ahmedabad, Kejriwal said: “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?”
Kejriwal also inaugurated the AAP’s Gujarat office and welcomed popular local journalist Isudan Gadhavi to the party.
AAP did miserably in 2017 Gujarat polls
The AAP had contested in the 2017 Assembly elections in Gujarat but failed to win a single seat. In several of the 29 seats that it contested, the party’s candidates lost their deposits. It got a vote share of 0.1 percent. However, the party did well in this year’s municipal elections in Surat by winning 27 of 120 seats in the civic body of the diamond city by cutting into the Congress’s votes. Kejriwal held a mega road show following the success. Monday saw the AAP chief visiting Gujarat for the second time in four months.
“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 Bharatiya Janata Party have done nothing for the state,” Kejriwal said.
He added: “Everyone knows that the Congress is in 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, Kejriwal said the latter gave up his career while at the peak, to serve the people of Gujarat. “For the past few years, Gadhavi, 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,” the Delhi chief minister, who is serving his third term, said.
When asked whether the AAP will put into place a ‘Delhi model’ of governance if it comes to power in Gujarat, Kejriwal said every state has its own problems and solutions and the people of Gujarat would choose their own model of development.
Speaking on the occasion, 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.”
