Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday launched the Aam Aadmi Party's Lok Sabha election campaign in Gujarat, where he said only his party can finish off the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the country. He also urged people to help his party win the two Lok Sabha seats that it is contesting in Gujarat so that the issues faced by them can be raised in Parliament.
Of the 26 Lok Sabha constituencies in Gujarat, the AAP is fighting two seats as part of the INDIA bloc, while ally Congress is contesting the remaining 24 seats. The AAP is fighting from Bharuch and Bhavnagar seats. Addressing party workers here, Kejriwal said, "Before the 2022 elections, everyone was saying that Gujarat has two-party system and no third party will ever succeed here. However, we received 14 per cent votes in the last assembly elections and broke that myth. "
"We snatched 14 per cent votes from the mouth of a lion. Gujarat is BJP's bastion and to get such high number of votes here was a good success... I think that if there is any party that can defeat BJP and finish it off from the country - that is is AAP, and it will happen one day," the AAP convener said.
People of Gujarat gave AAP 14 per cent votes and made it a national party, he added. "In the last two Lok Sabha polls, you gave all 26 seats to BJP. But they have not done any work for you in the last 10 years. I urge you to give two seats to AAP and we will raise all your questions in the Lok Sabha and get your issues resolved. MPs elected by BJP are not able to raise any of your issues in Parliament," he said.
He described both AAP candidates in Gujarat - Chaitar Vasava from Bharuch and Umesh Makwana from Bhavnagar - as dedicated party workers. "Chaitar is a hero as he was put in jail for one month by the BJP government, but despite being under so much pressure, he declined the invitation to join the ruling party," the Delhi CM said.
"Not only Chaitar, his wife was also put behind bars," he said. Even after the BJP won 156 out of the total 182 seats in Gujarat in the 2022 assembly polls, it party did not do any work for the development of Gujarat, Kejriwal said. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who was also present at the programme, said time has come to get rid of "dictatorship" at the Centre.
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