Free power, education, healthcare: Kejriwal calls AAP MP\'s \'alternative\'
Bhopal: Aam Aadmi Party supremo and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday sounded the bugle for the year-end Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh for his party, saying that AAP will become an alternative political force in the state. At a rally in Bhopal, he promised freebies and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is afraid of the AAP and that the country needs an "educated prime minister".
Addressing the party workers, Mr Kejriwal said that the AAP will field candidates in all 230 Assembly seats in MP and emerge as the alternative in the state.
Without taking names, he accused the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress of "trading governments" in Madhya Pradesh and described MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the "permanent CM", irrespective of whichever party wins the Assembly polls.
"In Madhya Pradesh, a party goes around carrying the MLAs in a pushcart, quoting their prices and another party grabs the opportunity to buy them at a discount. They have made the system and democracy a marketplace," he said.
He was referring to the desertion of 22 Congress MLAs from the party in March 2020, leading to the fall of the 15-month-old Kamal Nath government and paving the way for the return of Mr Chouhan as chief minister for the fourth time.
"People are frustrated. It hardly matters whether people voted for the Congress or the BJP. Only Mama (Mr Chouhan) will form the government. But their game is over. The AAP will sweep the upcoming Assembly elections in MP," he said.
He called upon the people to give a chance to the AAP in the year-end Assembly elections, saying that they have seen the 45-year rule of the Congress and the 20-year rule of the BJP in the state.
MP will be developed like the AAP-ruled Delhi and Punjab if the party is voted to power in the state in the upcoming Assembly polls, he said.
He promised free electricity, education and health facilities to the people if AAP formed the government in the state.
Mr Kejriwal launched a diatribe against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the arrest of Delhi's former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia by the Enforcement Directorate in a corruption case recently, saying the country should have a Prime Minister who could understand the value of education.
Mr Sisodia has done good work in the education sector in Delhi, he said. `
Referring to the "Vyapam scam" related to admissions to medical colleges and recruitment in government jobs in Madhya Pradesh and a scam in the women and child development department in the state, Mr Kejriwal said nobody was sent to jail in these cases.
"The philosophy of the BJP is that you are not supposed to do corruption if you belong to the Opposition, but corruption is justified if you do it after joining the BJP," he said.
Asked about next year's Lok Sabha polls, Mr Kejriwal said Mr Modi will suffer in the parliamentary elections this time.
Punjab's chief minister Bhagwant Mann also addressed the rally.
The AAP, which swept the Punjab polls last year, is buoyed by its performance in the Madhya Pradesh urban local body polls in July-August last year, where it claimed it had garnered 6.3 per cent of the vote share.
It had fielded 1,500 candidates for local body polls and the party managed to win the mayor's post in Singrauli in the state's Vindh region.
