‘Kick us out if...’: AAP chief Kejriwal vows to revamp Guj schools
AHMEDABAD: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday announced that his party will contest the Gujarat assembly elections in alliance with the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) even as he targeted the state government over the “dismal” condition of schools.
Hitting out at the ruling BJP, Kejriwal claimed that 6,000 schools were shut by the Gujarat government in the name of mergers.
The remaining schools, he alleged, were in such poor conditions that they were not fit for students to sit and study in. He invited Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel to visit schools and hospitals in Delhi and “not criticise them baselessly”.
“This time the government of AAP and BTP will be formed,” Kejriwal said, addressing an Adivasi Sankalp Sammelan in Bharuch’s Chandeliya.
This is the first alliance by the AAP in Gujarat ahead of the assembly elections scheduled for later this year.
“This is our first official public rally after victory in the Punjab elections. We are well aware of the exploitation and injustice faced by the adivasi community in Gujarat – first at the hands of the British, then tortured by our own people,” the AAP chief said
Kejriwal said the BJP, despite being in power in Gujarat for 27 years, “failed” to improve the condition of government schools. “Give them five more years and they will do nothing... Gujarat will not improve. Give us one chance, and if we do not improve the conditions of all schools, kick us out,” he said.
He also promised free electricity, corruption-free government services and doorstep delivery of public services.
Gujarat BJP president CR Paatil on Sunday hit out at Kejriwal, calling him a “threat to national security” for giving “Khalistan-minded people” responsibility in the AAP.
“We have seen the condition of schools in Delhi. There are numerous videos that show their schools lying in dilapidated conditions. Even schools in the Delhi CM’s constituency are in bad shape. The party cannot manage and run schools properly in a small place like Delhi but want to comment on a state which has over 40,000 schools,” said Yamal Vyas, BJP spokesperson.