Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Convenor Arvind Kejriwal met the newly-elected corporators of the party and its volunteers after arriving in Gujarat's Surat on Friday, 26 February, for a roadshow after the Aam Aadmi Party’s electoral success in its debut civic body polls in the state, reported news agency ANI.
While speaking to the elected corporators, Kejriwal said that after listening to statements of BJP and Congress, over the past few days, BJP seems to be perturbed post the results.
“They're perturbed, a little scared. We've to understand that they're not scared of you or AAP. They're scared of people who voted for you,” Kejriwal was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
He further went on to say that there have been a lot of issues with BJP ‘s governance in the state in the past 25 years.
“Why has BJP been governing here for last 25 years? It's not as if they're doing great. Different parties come to power in states across the country but only one party is governing here,’’ he said.
He further added that BJP is doing whatever they want and has kept other parties under control.
“There's no one to tell them anything, they're doing whatever they want. For the first time when there came someone to look them in the eye — you, people gave you respect,’’ he was quoted as saying.
AAP’s Success in Debut Civic Body Polls
The AAP contested the Gujarat civic polls for the first time with 470 candidates and made inroads into Gujarat after securing 27 seats in the Surat Municipal Corporation.
In the recently held polls across six municipal corporations in Gujarat, BJP won 483 out of 576 seats. In Surat, it bagged 93 of 120 seats, while the remaining seats were won by the AAP.
With AAP’s performance, the party that lost out was the Congress, with 25 of the 27 seats that the former bagged, being previously held by the latter.
What Have AAP Leaders Said?
Soon after the results became clear earlier this week, Kejriwal congratulated the people of Gujarat for "introducing a new kind of politics".
"The Aam Aadmi Party has performed brilliantly in Gujarat's municipal elections. Gujarat has introduced honest and work-oriented politics," he said.
Meanwhile, AAP's Gujarat in-charge Gulab Singh had reportedly said, "Before the 2022 Assembly election, AAP will take to the streets to expose the BJP's corruption. AAP will emerge as a strong Opposition party across Gujarat, as the party will win many more seats in the rural local body polls."
(With inputs from ANI)
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