Kejri to lead AAP campaign in Gujarat
NEW DELHI: Beginning March, Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal will visit Gujarat once every month to drum up support for the party in the run-up to the state polls due year-end.
The AAP brass, which held a series of meetings from February 23 and February 25, has decided to focus on the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where the party fancies its chances.
Senior party leaders have been assigned the task of building the organisation in Gujarat to present AAP as an alternative to the BJP and the Congress.
A good performance in Gujarat would help the party establish its national credentials ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections that Kejriwal is eyeing.
The party’s highest decisionmaking body, the political affairs committee (PAC), will hold a show of strength in the state capital Gandhinagar on March 26.
“There will be a massive rally which Arvind Kejriwal will address,” a party leader said.
The party had earlier planned a gherao of Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani for the alleged failure of the BJP government to deliver on its promises but decided to turn the event into a Kejriwal show.
Apart from state in-charge Gopal Rai, several PAC members will be responsible for building a strong state unit.
Senior leaders Sanjay Singh, Durgesh Pathak, Ashutosh and Ashish Khetan will be camping in the western state. “Immediately after the Punjab results, Singh and Pathak will move to Gujarat and work on a party-building exercise similar to Punjab,” a leader said. Results for Punjab and four other state elections will be announced on March 11.
AAP leaders would tour Gujarat on March 5 and meet volunteers to explain to them the importance of Gujarat in AAP’s scheme of things, sources said.
The last election in Gujarat, held in December 2012, returned Modi as the CM and was instrumental in the BJP picking him as the prime ministerial candidate.
ARVIND KEJRIWAL TO VISIT GUJARAT EVERY MONTH TO DRUM UP SUPPORT FOR THE PARTY IN THE RUNUP TO ASSEMBLY POLLS