INDIA bloc was only for Lok Sabha elections: Arvind Kejriwal in Gujarat

When asked about the INDIA coalition, Kejriwal said, “That was for the Lok Sabha election. There is no coalition right now, according to us.”

Talking about the party’s stand on corruption involving Umesh Makwana, the recently suspended Botad MLA, Gadhvi said, “AAP is a party, which has come from jan andolan. When a minister in Punjab was involved in corruption, Arvind Kejriwal ji not only removed him from the party, but also put him in jail. AAP attempts to give the country and Gujarat a corruption-free rule and along those lines, we had received complaints against the MLA (Makwana)… BJP keeps trying to purchase MLAs, but when Italia won the Visavadar seat, the BJP was dumbfounded. Six Congress MLAs had joined the BJP and all of them won, but none of MLAs who joined the BJP after quitting AAP managed to win any seat. So when we received complaints about our MLA, we suspended him. No question thus remains (about AAP’s stand on corruption).”

When asked about the possible defection of Gariadhar AAP MLA Sudhir Vaghani, Gadhvi said, “Sudhirbhai was with us yesterday. He had a social  engagement in Surat and thus had to go there. Please let us not spread rumours. The Gariadhar MLA is with us, is strong and will keep raising the issues of his constituency. He also met Kejriwalji yesterday and the party stands behind him.”

At the press conference on Thursday, Kejriwal reiterated his comments from a day earlier, when he had addressed AAP cadres and spoken about BJP’s rule in Gujarat and had alleged “complicity” by the two major parties. Kejriwal said, “In Surat, there are floods. Upper-middle class people have bought houses worth crores and there is water in their living rooms and bedrooms. This was not the state of Surat 10 years ago. This is a man-made event and it is the result of corruption. I have been told the same situation developed a few years ago in Vadodara and Junagadh as well. Cities are getting flooded. Why? Because they (BJP) have joined hands with builders and impeded the water flow…”

“The state of roads in Gujarat is bad. The condition of farmers is bad. They are not getting seeds, electricity, water or fertilizer. The youth witness incidents like paper leaks. There is lack of employment and hiring takes place on contract basis. No one is happy in Gujarat, but BJP keeps winning. This is because the people of Gujarat did not have an alternative till now. Everyone knows the Congress is in their (BJP’s) pocket. In a way, the Congress is given a theka in every election to help the BJP win in the state. And the Congress does this job very well. The Congress don’t get votes. Usually, they don’t win, but if they do, the winners go and join the BJP,” Kejriwal added.

Claiming that people are looking at AAP as an alternative in Gujarat, Kejriwal said, “Now AAP is here… Just like we won in Visavadar, this environment and anger of people is prevalent across Gujarat. People saw that the Congress ruled for 30 years, then the BJP for another 30. Now it’s time for the BJP to go. AAP, over the next two years, will work hard, go to people’s homes under the ‘Gujarat Jodo Abhiyan’, to win in Gujarat.”