Buoyed by its first electoral victory in Gujarat, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal landed in Surat city on Friday to “thank” voters for making the party’s 27 candidates’ win in the municipal corporation polls, the first-ever electoral victory of the party in the state.
Kejriwal, who has refrained from campaigning for the party in local body polls, received a rousing welcome at the city airport. A large number of people turned up during his roadshow which culminated in a massive public meet.
In the recently held municipal corporations elections, AAP made significant inroads in Surat, famous as diamond city and considered a citadel of ruling BJP, by winning 27 seats, most of which was held by the Congress, out of 120 seats. The Congress suffered a humiliating defeat after it failed to open an account, placing the AAP to sit in the corporation as the chief opposition party.
On the day of the result, the BJP state president C R Patil described AAP’s victory as “painful” to deal with. BJP has bettered its record by winning 93 seats. After landing at the airport, the Delhi chief minister met his 27 elected councillors and gave them a pep talk. “You have done a great job. Now, you will receive calls from the BJP (to switch over). But none of you should do that. We don’t have resources or money but it is the integrity that is our biggest power. We will lose the trust of 6 crore Gujaratis if even one of you leaves,” he said.
Attacking BJP, Kejriwal said in BJP’s rule Gujarat has the highest “electricity tariff in the country, the farmers hardly get eight hours of electricity, that too only in the night.”