Delhi Chief Minister Designate and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.
Arvind Kejriwal, who will return as Chief Minister of Delhi on Saturday, has refused Z security, which is the most elaborate of different types of protection offered to politicians.
"If we claim he is the Janta's Chief Minister, he shouldn't be cut off from Janta (the public)," said Ashutosh of the Aam Admi Party or AAP, which won an incredible result in the Delhi election yesterday. He added that while Mr Kejriwal will be escorted by some policemen, their job will be to manage crowd control and ensure there no inconvenience is caused when the Chief Minister is on the move.
To formally reject the cover, Mr Kejriwal will have to submit a letter to the Union Home Ministry.
Till he moves to his new home as Chief Minister, Mr Kejriwal's apartment building in Ghaziabad, near Delhi, will be guarded by 10 inspectors, 50 male constables and 10 women constables, said Vippin Tada, Superintendent of Police for Ghaziabad, to NDTV.
Mr Kejriwal's party has said that intrinsic to its DNA is the rejection of the VIP culture embraced by politicians for perks like
lal battis or red beacons, which give their cars the right of way.
During Mr Kejriwal's last term as Chief Minister, which lasted just 49 days, he repeatedly rejected armed escorts. That placed the Delhi Police in the awkward spot of being accountable for the security of a leader who kept turning away the commandos sent to him.
Mr Kejriwal was also seen waiting at red lights in his Wagon-R, much to the surprise and delight of other Delhi commuters used to screeching sirens and flashing red lights rushing through politicians in their white Ambassadors.
Mr Kejriwal had also chosen to stay in two adjoining duplex flats instead of the sprawling bungalow that he was entitled to. One of the flats was used as an office, he said, when criticized for accepting a fancier home than behooved the leader of a party named for the common man.