Give up PM ambitions: Mayank Gandhi’s open letter to Kejriwal

Former Aam Aadmi Party leader and a close aide of party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal, Mayank Gandhi has slammed the Delhi CM in an open letter on Wednesday as the BJP looked set to complete hat-trick of its rule in the three MCDs.

The results of the MCD elections were announced on Wednesday with the AAP facing a rout.

The letter, which Gandhi had posted on his blog and tweeted from his handle, addresses Kejriwal – the Hero and the Politician. Gandhi described the AAP rout as a “body blow to arrogance”.

“Arvind, the unselfish hero who would never compromise, was dead. In his place was a politician who wanted to manipulate that support to fuel his ambition to become a PM in 2019,” Gandhi wrote, referring to direction AAP took after the unprecedented win in the 2015 assembly elections.

“We have out beaten other parties with our arrogance and internal politicking,” Gandhi wrote.

“You took complete power by becoming convener as well as CM of Delhi. How much more power do you want before you start delivering alternative politics?,” the former AAP leader wrote.

“Abandon the agenda of wanting to be another BJP and Cong. We had come to fight them not become another version of them,” Gandhi said.

He advised Kejriwal to give up national ambitions and focus on Delhi. “For now, forget your national ambitions and focus on governing Delhi well, that is your only chance of staying relevant. Stop dramas and blaming.” The Delhi municipal poll results offer a lesson to the AAP and CM Arvind Kejriwal. That is, if the IITian doesn’t choose to look the other way and stick to his common refrain about faulty EVMs, once an apolitical technology.

His takeaway from the MCD poll results and from the recent Rajouri Garden bypoll outcome is that one can’t be a chief minister, a pivot of power, and an anti-system sloganeer, too. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi tried it out long before the former income tax officer-turned-politician did, but such oxymorons make ordinary citizens only confused and skeptical.

To be fair to the CM, his government

THE LETTER, WHICH GANDHI HAD POSTED ON HIS BLOG AND TWEETED FROM HIS HANDLE, ADDRESSES KEJRIWAL – THE HERO AND THE POLITICIAN. GANDHI DESCRIBED THE AAP ROUT AS A “BODY BLOW TO ARROGANCE