Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced the decision to contest the Gujarat Assembly elections, due next year, while he was visiting the state on Saturday.
Kickstarting the party’s campaign, Kejriwal asked the people of Gujarat to support him. “If you want me to fight, you will have to give money, you will have to go to each house and seek votes. We will together teach a lesson to these corrupt people,” Kejriwal said to an enthusiastic crowd.
In a day-long visit to the state with his party colleague Kumar Vishwas, on Saturday, he also announced the party’s decision to contest all the 182 Assembly seats in the state. His visit also came with the party workers demonstrating against the demolition of slums and lack of basic amenities in Rajkot.
Kejriwal’s scheduled visit to Surat, on Sunday has been however cancelled as the trade body that invited Kejriwal has withdrawn their invitation. “My original programme of Gujarat was for two days. Today we were to visit Somnath and tomorrow we had a meeting scheduled in Surat. But Anandibenji put undue pressure on businessmen in Surat and got our programme cancelled. I don’t know why Anandibenji is afraid of me,” Kejriwal said.