AAP to work with tribal leader Chhotu Vasava, says Kejriwal
BHARUCH: Ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls due later this year, Aam Aadmi Party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said he stands with the tribals of Gujarat and is happy to work with Bharatiya Tribal Party ( BTP) founder Chhotu Vasava to bring about a change in the state and improve lives of the poor.
In his first public rally in Gujarat ahead of the Assembly elections, the Delhi CM said while the ruling BJP and opposition Congress stand with the rich, he stands with Chhotu Vasava, the latter’s younger brother and BTP’s national president Mahesh Vasava and the state’s poor people.
“It is an irony that two richest persons of our country come from Gujarat, and the poorest tribals of our country are also from Gujarat. In Dahod, Chhota Udepur, Aravalli, Dang -- there are many areas where some of the poorest people live,” Kejriwal said at the ‘ Adivasi Sankalp
Maha Sammelan’ organised jointly with the BTP at Chanderiya village in Bharuch.
“The BJP and Congress stand with the rich...they are making the rich richer. I am here to tell you Chhotubhai and Maheshbhai that Kejriwal and AAP, we stand with you, we stand with the poor...Give us a chance, we will remove your poverty, educate your children, make hospitals for you and give you a job,” he claimed.
Kejriwal thanked the two BTP leaders for inviting him to the rally. “We will work together to change Gujarat,” the AAP leader said. In the 2017 state Assembly polls, the BTP had formed an alliance with the Congress and won two seats.
On the occasion of Gujarat’s foundation day on Sunday, Kejriwal also targeted the BJP over its state president C R Paatil, and claimed there cannot be a bigger insult of the state’s people than the ruling party appointing “a man from Maharashtra” as its chief.“Who is the president of Gujarat BJP? C R Paatil. Where does he live? He lives in Maharashtra. The BJP could not find a president from among 6.5 crore Gujarat citizens...such an insult of the people of Gujarat,” he said.
The AAP chief also criticised the Gujarat BJP government over the “pathetic” condition of government schools in the state. He claimed that 6,000 schools in Gujarat were shut by the state government under the pretext of being merged, and sought people’s support to improve the condition of schools in the state, like done by his government in Delhi.