Now Gujarat Will Change, Says Arvind Kejriwal Day Before State Visit

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, whose Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is eyeing to contest the 2022 Gujarat Assembly polls, will be on a one-day visit to the state on Monday, a spokesperson of the party said.

"Now Gujarat will change. Tomorrow I am coming to Gujarat, and will meet all the brothers and sisters of Gujarat," Mr Kejriwal said in a tweet posted in Gujarati on Sunday.

During his visit, Mr Kejriwal is scheduled to inaugurate the party's Gujarat state office in Ahmedabad.

This will be Mr Kejriwal's second visit to Gujarat. He had last visited Surat in February after the party emerged as the main opposition after the civic body elections there in its maiden fight there.

His visit assumes significance as the AAP is eyeing to contest the December 2022 Gujarat Assembly election and aggressively preparing for it.

In a release, the state unit of the AAP said, "As per (Mr) Kejriwal's day-long itinerary of his Monday visit, he will arrive at Ahmedabad airport at 10.20 am, from where he will go to the circuit house. At 11.40 am, he will hold a press conference at the city's Vallabh Sadan after "taking the blessings of Lord Krishna."

He will then leave to inaugurate the party's new state office located on Ashram Road. Kejriwal will leave for Delhi on the same day, party''s spokesperson Tuli Banerjee said.

The AAP had made inroads into Gujarat politics by winning 27 seats in the 120-member Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), emerging as the main opposition. The party had also fielded candidates across all the local bodies- municipal corporations, municipalities, as well as district and taluka panchayats, winning on several of them.

The AAP is looking to present itself as a formidable alternative to the Congress in Gujarat and challenge the BJP in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home turf. The party is trying to fill in the gap left by the Congress, which has seen setbacks in the recent past with several of its MLAs resigning, and its poor performance in the local body polls held in February this year.