Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal today continued to jibe at the BJP over his auto-rickshaw ride in Ahmedabad, where he had dinner at the driver's home. "The police were trying to stop me, not protect me," said the Delhi Chief Minister in response to a question. "How can the police of any state say that if you go in an auto we cannot give you security," he asked, "I go to Punjab, I take the auto in Delhi, it does not happen there."
"No one can stop me from going to the people," he said at an interactive event today. "BJP leaders have no connection with the common people, so they want me to not make one too. But I am a people's person."
But he apparently didn't want the cops to feel attacked, so he tweeted later that they should refuse "BJP's orders to do wrong things". The AAP will take up police personnel's salary and other issues, he added.
He announced that the party, which began 2022 on a massive high in Punjab — where it formed its first government outside Delhi — will contest all seats in the Gujarat polls due at the end of this year.
His dinner at an auto-rickshaw driver's home in Ahmedabad was preceded by some drama as the police, citing security concerns, asked him not to travel in an auto. He had accepted the auto driver's invitation at an event earlier in the day. After a heated argument on camera, police allowed him to proceed, with one cop sitting in a front seat beside the driver, and two police cars escorting the three-wheeler.
Dinner at an auto driver's home is a familiar stop in Mr Kejriwal's poll campaign — he had a similar outreach in Punjab earlier this year. And auto drivers have been a key target segment for the political startup in Delhi too. "Auto-wallahs of Punjab and Gujarat love me," he told the Ahmedabad auto driver, Vikram Dantani, while accepting his invitation yesterday.
He later tweeted photos of their meetup.
At the event today, he said "I have been going around the state for the past several months, meeting public, lawyers, auto drivers, farmers, traders. Everyone who met me said there is a lot of corruption in BJP rule. I guarantee that if AAP comes to power, we will give you corruption-free, fear-free governance."
He claimed the party is running "absolutely clean" governments in Delhi and Punjab.
The BJP has said the AAP will not win a single seat in Gujarat as its campaign is based on "repeated lies".
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