In Vadodara, Kejriwal attacks BJP for ‘failure to build five-star schools’, says saffron party hates tribals

Accompanied by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Maan, Kejriwal on Friday arrived in Vadodara to campaign for the party’s two Lok Sabha candidates —Dediapada MLA Chaitar Vasava from Bharuch Parliamentary constituency and Botad MLA Umesh Makwana from Bhavnagar constituency — seeking “one chance” to represent Gujarat in the Lok Sabha.

What happened on March 13

Paatil was addressing a gathering from the dais during the inauguration of a BJP party office in Vadodara district when the sarpanch of the Khatamba village demanded a school in his village.

Kejriwal said, “I learnt the sarpanch was thrown out of the venue by the party workers. The BJP is making five-star offices across the country but they cannot build a school in a village. What have they done in 30 years of rule in Gujarat? If someone has to rise from the audience and say, ‘It’s good you have built an office now build a school’, they (BJP) should drown in shame. In Delhi, we have built five-star schools and we don’t have a single office there.”

‘What did you get?’

Urging the voters to ponder if any of the 26 BJP MPs have raised people’s issues in Parliament, Kejriwal said, “What have you got by electing 26 MPs from the BJP in the state? Has any one of them raised your issues in Parliament while the state suffered through multiple hooch tragedies, paper leaks and when your children wandered on the streets in search of employment? What were they doing at that time? They were all sleeping…They (BJP) have become so arrogant that it says it doesn’t need votes from those who don’t matter to them. But I need your votes; I have come here to beg for your votes and to tell you to give us a chance.”

‘We broke a misconception’

Stating that the AAP had, in the 2022 Assembly polls, “broken the misconception” that Gujarat was a two-party state, Kejriwal said, “Although one MLA cheated us and left, with five MLAs and 14 per cent votes, we broke the misconception in 2022 that only two parties can work in Gujarat.”

He added, “We had very little campaign time in 2022 and we could not go to all the places and meet all the people but we are confident that in the 2027 Gujarat Assembly election, the AAP will form the government and no one will be able to take away power from us.”

‘BJP hates tribals’

Kejriwal went on to attack the BJP for using its power to “pressurise” leaders of other parties to leave their parties. He said, “The BJP hates tribals. I studied the Hemant Soren case. He is innocent. He is the only tribal Chief Minister in the country and they are attacking him. The BJP has kept the tribal areas without any development in Gujarat. So, when fearless leaders like Chaitar Vasava rise and raise questions, they make all efforts to break them.”

He added, “For one year, they (BJP) kept visiting Chaitar to entice him with money and offers to join the party but when he did not relent, they booked him and his wife in a case. It was to harass him to join the party. But, Chaitar did not bow down and chose to go to jail (for the cause of tribal farmers). They (BJP) even went to meet him several times in jail to ask him to join but he did not relent and we are proud that he is an AAP leader.”

Kejriwal further said, “There was an attempt made to take sitting AAP MLA Botad and Umesh Makwana’s life. They broke his legs and assaulted him with rods and we were not sure if he would survive. But he has fought his way out and is the candidate from Bhavnagar.”

What Bhagwant Mann said

At the event, Maan also spoke about the AAP’s Punjab government completing two years on Saturday and said, “It is two years since the formation of the AAP government in Punjab and we have not only made electricity free but also purchased a loss-making private thermal power plant to turn it into a power generator for our goal of giving power to the industries for free. We have also got Tata Steel’s second biggest plant after Jamshedpur in Punjab, despite the fact that the Centre has withheld development funds for Punjab’s National Health Mission and Rural development.”