In a fresh salvo of attacks on both the ruling BJP and chief opposition Congress in Gujarat, the Aam Aadmi Party supremo and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday while warning the people against voting for these parties said, "If you vote for Congress, Sonia Gandhi's son will progress and if you vote for BJP, Amit Shah's son will progress. Whereas, if you vote for AAP, children of Gujarat will progress."
Kejriwal said this while addressing a town hall of youths in Ahmedabad on Sunday. He said that he read the aforementioned messages floating in WhatsApp groups in Gujarat in which he is also a member. Accompanied by his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann, the Delhi chief minister claimed that AAP is a "new party of a new age" and therefore voters should give it a chance.
"I want to ask you how many jobs did the BJP give to the children of Gujarat in their 27 years of rule? You people used to vote for BJP or else your votes would have gone to Congress. Congress is much worse. Therefore, people voted for BJP out of compulsion. This time it is not a compulsion. This time there is an honest party. It's a new party. It has new faces and it is a nationalist party. This time change the government and you will get jobs," Kejriwal said.
AAP's chief Kejriwal has been frequenting Gujarat for the past couple of months, addressing specific groups of people through town halls and promising 10 lakh jobs, unemployment allowances of Rs 3000 per month, Rs 1000 for women and free electricity up to 300 units and other sops if the party voted to power.
His deputy and Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia, who is under CBI radar over liquor policy in Delhi, has been campaigning in Mehsana, the fortress of the BJP, for the past couple of days, in north Gujarat. Party's Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha, who has been appointed as co-in-charge of the Gujarat election, also landed in the state a day earlier.
Meal with Ahmedabad's Dalit family at CM house in Delhi
In another town hall with sanitation workers, Kejriwal invited a Dalit family from Ahmedabad to have a meal with his family at his official residence in Delhi on Monday. He announced this during the function when one Harsh Solanki invited the Delhi CM to have food with a Dalit family as he did with a family of an autorickshaw driver earlier this month.
Promising that he would have food at Harsh's house soon, Kejriwal said that he will arrange for air tickets for Harsh and his family of five and they will be received in Delhi by his MLAs and ministers. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was quick to add that the stay of Harsh and his family would be arranged at Punjab Bhawan in Delhi.
While addressing the gathering, Kejriwal said that people should "retire BJP" after 27 years and elect AAP for a better future. Repeating his "guarantee" promises of better schools, free education, and jobs, among other sops, he reiterated how he is being targeted as a "thug, terrorist and Khalistani."
"I am being targeted for making free and better schools for children, free health in better hospitals for everyone. I am an educated person who knows how to create jobs. What kind of a thug would make schools for children and hospitals? Do terrorists look like me," the Delhi CM said.
Unlike his other town halls in which he and the party's other leaders would sit on chairs and tables, the AAP leaders sat on the floor of the stage and interacted with the audience which comprised mostly of people from the scheduled caste.