He decided on Nand Nagri, where houses are cheek-by-jowl, for his fast as it was the place from where he launched his protest in 1999 to demand that the government bring in the Right to Information Act, which was enacted in 2005. Kejriwal, 43, began his fast - March 23 outside a house belonging to a tailor, Ranjit Singh, in the congested east Delhi area of Sundar Nagri in Nand Nagri. He would interact with supporters and hundreds of others who came to meet him in a small tent erected in the narrow alley outside the F-1/45 house.
He would recline on cushions placed over a makeshift stage and would go back periodically to relax inside the approximately 12 ft X 10 ft single room ground floor flat. Throughout the fast period, Kejriwal, a known diabetic, survived on seven-eight litres of boiled water daily, his aide claimed.
His associates brushed off the lack of media attention.
"Though the media attention was less this time, we succeeded in our protest because our volunteers were working at the ground level. Kejriwal's fast, combined with our door-to-door campaigning and the help desks we set up in 272 wards across the capital, helped to make our movement a success," Gopal Rai, a senior member of AAP, told IANS. The Aam Admi Party (AAP) was launched by Kejriwal in November last year.
The activist-turned-politician has vowed to continue his fight for issues concerning poorer and working class sections.
Vijay Kumar, a resident of Seelampur in east Delhi, is among Kejriwal's ardent supporters. Kumar was last month slapped with an electricity bill of Rs.46,000. He did not have a proper connection for many years and would illegally tap power from overhead cables.
He has signed up for the Gandhi-style "civil disobedience movement which urges people not to pay their "inflated" bills and sign the letters of protest to the Delhi government. After he ends his fast, Kejriwal will go on a door-to-door campaign over the "inflated" water and power bills, his volunteers said.
The people of Nand Nagri are enthused with Kejriwal. Radhey Shyam is one of hundreds who has turned a supporter of Kejriwal.
"In the coming elections my family and myself will vote for AAP. We salute Kejriwal," Shyam, a 54-year-old shopkeeper, told IANS.
While earlier all the members and volunteers were saying the fast would continue for some more days, no one was ready to comment on why Kejriwal suddenly announced ending it Saturday.
