Urging people to re-elect him as chief minister ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday launched the ‘Jansampark Yatra’, a mass outreach campaign to address questions about him. imprisonment for five months.
The yatra, Kejriwal said, is planned to ensure that the citizens of Delhi understand why he was arrested and the challenges AAP faced during his absence. As part of the campaign which will continue till October 29, AAP workers will visit homes in Delhi to deliver a letter from Kejriwal exposing the “truth” of his arrest along with other party leaders in corruption cases.
“I have met many people since I got out of prison. I know there are questions in people’s hearts about my arrest. That’s why I have written a letter answering those questions,” Kejriwal said while addressing party workers gathered at the AAP headquarters during the launch of the ‘Jansampark Yatra’.
The AAP official asked the party workers to explain his situation to the residents while handing over his letter. “If you deliver my letter to the residents of Delhi, you should explain that I would not have been arrested, if I had not given them these facilities in Delhi. If Manish Sisodia had not provided world-class schools for their children, they would have put him in jail, if Satyender Jain had not given them mohalla clinics, good hospitals and free medicines, he would not be rotting in jail right now. ,” said Kejriwal.
“We all went to jail because of you but we don’t regret going to jail; Our only concern is to continue all the free services without stopping… With your support, I will take the responsibility of the Grand Master, and I will serve you all as before. We have to ensure that this letter reaches every household in the next 10-15 days,” he said as he urged Delhiites to vote AAP back to power.
In the letter, Kejriwal also stated that his arrest was not due to corruption but was part of a “larger conspiracy” by political opponents to stop development work in Delhi.
“Everyone knows that I have not committed any corruption. Kejriwal cannot do corruption,” he said, accusing the BJP-led Central government of not being able to replicate the AAP governance model in other states, leading to voter dissatisfaction there. “The people of those states have started asking why the work being done in Delhi is not happening in their states. They have no answer,” the letter said.
The letter also paints a picture that the BJP fears the growing influence of the AAP, especially after the Punjab elections. “After our victory in Punjab, they started to feel that if the work in Delhi is not stopped soon, their shops will be closed all over the country,” he said.
The former chief minister accused the BJP of making repeated attempts to stop Delhi’s progress, first through the Lieutenant Governor and then by jailing an AAP leader. “For two years, the LG has held the file of the mohalla clinic. It was after a lot of pressure, including my protest to stay for 10 days with my colleagues in the Cabinet that we were able to move forward… In prison, they did everything to prevent me from staying safely. As a diabetic, I need insulin injections four times a day, but they stopped my medication,” he said.
He also said that BJP has now come up with a new plan – to complete the work done by AAP in the last 10 decades. “If we continue to provide facilities like free electricity and water, then the citizens of the 22 states where they (BJP) are in power, will question them as they cannot provide these facilities in states like Gujarat. To prevent such questions, their (BJP’s) first step will be to end free electricity. . Their agenda is to close these services that you have benefited from,” Kejriwal said.
He also warned that a BJP victory in the Delhi elections would mean the end of free electricity, the return of blackouts, and the collapse of public schools and hospitals.
AAP leaders, including Manish Sisodia, Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, ministers Gopal Rai, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Kailash Gahlot, and Imran Hussain, and other MPs, were present at the campaign launch.