The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is making a strong push in Gujarat, which is set to have assembly elections at the end of this year. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal is on a two-day visit to Ahmedabad where he is attending “townhalls” with autorickshaw drivers, traders, and lawyers.
Incidentally, this is Kejriwal’s second visit to Gujarat this month alone. AAP, in fact, is set to pitchfork Manish Sisodia, who is fighting a slew of allegations on Delhi’s excise policy, to campaign for the party in the coming days. Speaking about this, Sisodia said, “I will do my duty wherever Arvind Kejriwal ji asks me to. However, the people of Gujarat are waiting to understand more deeply about Kejriwal’s guarantees. Wahan pe mahaul ban raha hai, meri jo bhumika rahegi, woh mein karunga (Change is in the air over there, I will do my part).”
However, even as Kejriwal is campaigning in Ahmedabad, a fresh controversy has erupted between AAP and Gujarat police with the party claiming that its office was raided just a couple of hours after the Delhi chief minister landed in the city on Sunday. Ahmedabad police have denied the allegation. Meanwhile, in Delhi, Sisodia said, “They (Gujarat police) are lying. Yesterday, when Arvind Kejriwal reached Gujarat in the evening, two hours later Ahmedabad police reached our office. Three police personnel reached there, they raided our office, they searched every nook and cranny in our office, they searched through our papers, our computers. They found nothing. They did not have any papers on them either. The office had some workers; the police just entered the office. What will the workers do?”
Sisodia, Delhi’s deputy chief minister and the face of AAP’s education model, is battling a slew of inquiries by the CBI on his alleged role in the capital’s liquor policy which purportedly led to a loss of revenue and building of classrooms which, according to an audit report, revealed irregularities. Answering the allegations of the Bharatiya Janata Party that AAP has no proof to back its claim of raids, Sisodia said, “You mean to say that raids will happen on us, attempts will be made to stop us, and when we say that, we are supposed to provide proof of the raids?”
Lashing out at the BJP, he said, “You (BJP) ask your police why were the raids conducted without a search warrant, unofficially. This is the modus operandi of the BJP. First threaten unofficially, and if one does not fall in line, then threaten them through other means. The PM gets up in the morning and thinks of ‘raids, raids, raids’… That is his mantra…How to damage someone, how to fell the opposition…janta kisi aur ki ore dekh na le (the public shouldn’t look at other alternatives).
Sisodia argued that the “mahaul” (mood) in Gujarat indicates that AAP is growing fast. There is no talk of the Congress and AAP is being recognised as the “no. 2” party in the state, he added. “And the rate at which AAP is growing, AAP will form the government in Gujarat, and it is this fear that is making them (BJP) stoop to such levels,” he said.
Asked about the challenges posed by the Congress, which won 77 of the 182 assembly constituencies the last time, and given the party’s endeavour to reinvent itself and connect with the people through its ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra, Sisodia replied, “The Congress may do whatever it wants. No one takes the Congress seriously anymore. The people have given multiple chances to the Congress party, but the Congress could not fight the BJP. For 27 years the BJP is ruling Gujarat and the Congress is the reason behind that. AAP is being regarded as the no. 2 party now, and as elections draw close, AAP’s graph will rise and it will form the government.”
When asked whether the entry of AAP may actually benefit the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party, with the anti-BJP votes getting divided between the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress, Sisodia, claiming that AAP will turn the Gujarat battle into a fight between no. 1 (BJP) and no. 2 ( AAP), responded, “The people of Gujarat say that they are tired of the 27-year rule of the BJP. They want a corruption-free government, a government that does not instill fear. They do not want a government that sends its men into people’s houses with danda (stick). They don’t want a government that is constantly thinking of raids. They want a government that is thinking of building schools and hospitals, creating employment, and fighting inflation. And everyone can see that only Arvind Kejriwal is the person who can do this.”
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