As Chhattisgarh polls near, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday announced ten “guarantees” to the electorate, including 300 units of free electricity, if his party was voted to power.
Speaking at an AAP workers’ convention in Raipur, Kejriwal said, “Today I am giving you ten guarantees which are not like a fake manifesto or ‘sankalp patra’. Kejriwal will die (if it comes to it) but fulfil these promises,” he said.
The guarantees included 24-hour uninterrupted power supply — free upto 300 units — to every household, waiver of pending electricity bills till November 2023, Rs 1,000 monthly ‘samman rashi’ (honorarium) to all women aged above 18 years and free quality education to school children, he said.
The other promises include: Providing free and better health treatment to every citizen of Chhattisgarh, mohalla clinics in every village and ward in cities, employment and allowance of Rs 3,000 per month to those unemployed, free pilgrimage for senior citizens, corruption-free Chhattisgarh, Rs 1 crore to the kin of personnel of state police and army jawans (who belong to Chhattisgarh) martyred in the line of duty as ‘samman rashi’ and regularize contractual employees, Kejriwal said.
The AAP leader said that the tenth guarantee is about farmers and tribals but he will reveal it during his next visit.
He also slammed the Congress government over the “terrible condition” of the government schools in the state.
“I was reading a report, government schools in Chhattisgarh are in terrible condition. They have closed many schools in which there used to be 10 classes but one teacher used to be there,” Delhi CM added.
“Look at the condition of government schools in Delhi or ask your relatives who stay in Delhi. For the first time since Independence, a government has come that is doing so much for the education sector. We are not politicians, we are just common people like you,” he said, as quoted by ANI.
Kejriwal was accompanied by AAP leader and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann.
In the 2018 elections, the AAP tried its luck for the first time in the Assembly elections and had fielded candidates in 85 of 90 seats but failed to achieve success.