‘Congress Exists Only On Paper’: Arvind Kejriwal In Gujarat

AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday appealed to people to not waste their votes on Congress and ensure that the grand old party does not get a single vote in the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections.

He said the Aam Aadmi Party can form the next government in Gujarat if the party bags the votes of those voters who are angry with the ruling BJP but who do not want to vote for the opposition Congress.       

Addressing a gathering of 7,000 newly-appointed office-bearers of the Aam Aadmi Party in Ahmedabad, Kejriwal said the Congress exists only on paper in Gujarat, while AAP's organisation has become much bigger than the main opposition party "with lakhs of people joining the AAP in a short time".

Claiming that a BJP delegation from Gujarat which visited Delhi recently has failed to find any shortcomings in schools and hospitals there, the Delhi chief minister asked office-bearers of AAP to explain to voters the good work done by the party in Delhi and Punjab while seeking their support in Gujarat.

"I can say with certainty that today AAP has a much bigger organisation in Gujarat compared to Congress, which has been present in the state for so many years. Congress exists only on paper. It is the party without office-bearers or workers while people are joining AAP in lakhs," he said.

Kejriwal also claimed that AAP will become an organisation even bigger than BJP in Gujarat once its booth-level set-up is in place in a month. 

He claimed the BJP pays people to work for them but AAP workers cannot be bought with money as they are patriots.

"Tell voters that there is no point voting for Congress. Last time, people voted for Congress with great hope. But 57 Congress MLAs have left so far (in Gujarat). Ask people to not waste their votes by supporting Congress. Ensure that Congress does not get a single vote in the upcoming elections," he said.

Kejriwal said AAP workers should try to persuade those voters to support AAP who are angry with the ruling BJP but do not want to vote for Congress.

"They ended up voting for BJP (for the lack of option). If you convince them to support AAP, then nothing can stop us from forming a government in Gujarat," he said.

There are also a large number of people who are angry with the BJP, but they do not want to vote for Congress. They hate Congress, but as they have no option they vote for BJP. All such people who are angry with BJP and do not vote for Congress should vote for us, he said.

"If you get us votes from these two sections of people, then I can say with certainty that you will form the next government. We are not working to sit in the Opposition, but to form a government," he added.

Taking potshots at Congress, Kejriwal said the opposition party is running no election campaign in Gujarat whereas the BJP is busy with only one agenda of "abusing AAP."

Kejriwal said only AAP shares people's grief, listens to their problems and talks about their children's future and about schools, hospitals, jobs, water, electricity, and roads.

A BJP delegation from Gujarat which recently visited Delhi to find shortcomings in schools and hospitals failed to pick any, he claimed. 

"They found no shortcomings. They had to cancel their press conference that was organised to expose Kejriwal. They said they will hold a press conference in Gujarat, but did not hold any such interaction," he said.

Kejriwal said a "journalist" from Gujarat went to Delhi to "expose" the AAP's claims of better schools and hospitals but ended up accepting good works done there. 

He asked AAP workers to download the video of the report (of the journalist) and show it to the voters during campaigning. 

BJP leader and former Gujarat minister Ramanlal Vora had last week said that AAP’s claims about the much-touted Delhi model of development are hollow.

Vora was in Delhi to “expose” the claims made by the Aam Aadmi Party with a BJP delegation.

The Gujarat BJP team, accompanied by Delhi BJP leader Manoj Tiwari, had visited a mohalla Clinic and a government-run school in the national capital. 

(With PTI inputs)