Aam Aadmi Party convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has come out all praise for the party’s performance in the recently concluded Gujarat Assembly elections, suggesting that winning five of the 182 seats in the Gujarat Assembly with a vote share of 12.9 per cent was no mean job for a party contesting the elections in the state for the first time.
“Everyone can milk a cow but we milked an ox,” Kejriwal, who led an aggressive campaign for his party in the state, said while chairing a meeting of the AAP’s National Council at Calista Resort in Kapashera on Sunday.
AAP’s growth trajectory phenomenal: Kejriwal
Exuding confidence of the AAP forming a government in Gujarat in the next elections in 2027, Kejriwal pointed to the recent successes the party has registered during the past year. The party swept to power in Punjab, decimating the Congress, Akali Dal as well as the BJP in March this year.
In the recent elections to the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi, AAP registered a comprehensive victory, ending the BJP’s 15-year rule at the civic body.
“In one year we got Punjab, won the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, 2 MLAs in Goa and 5 MLAs with 13 per cent vote share in Gujarat. Referring to our Gujarat success, one person told me that I milked an ox. Everyone can milk a cow but we milked an ox,” Kejriwal told AAP leaders.
AAP stands for honesty and impartiality: Kejriwal
Addressing party leaders at the National Council — the first to be held since AAP gained the ‘national party’ tag — Kejriwal also underlined that it is the party’s honesty and integrity that differentiate his party and the others.
“One party is enmeshed in corruption, whereas the other party promotes hooliganism and provides shelter to the goons. People can see that AAP stands for honesty and impartiality,” Kejriwal said.
The AAP chief also took shots at the BJP on the Chinese aggression along the Line of Actual Control in Tawang Sector of Arunachal Pradesh on December 8 and claimed that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre does not care about the lives of soldiers.
“The government is driving away the people of India and hugging the people of China. Traders and industrialists are leaving India,” Kejriwal further claimed.
Confidence building measure?
Kejriwal’s comments came after the party appeared to have withered away the crisis that emerged in its Gujarat unit. According to reports, at least two of its 5 MLAs in the state had considered switching sides to the BJP.
With turncoats constituting a large chunk of AAP’s contestants in the Gujarat election, there were rumours that some of the newly-elected legislators were considering jumping ship. Had two MLAs chosen to do so, they would have evaded the anti-defection law since they would comprise one-thrid of the party’s strength in the Assembly.