Heat forces Kejri to leave roadshow in hurry

On the third day of electioneering in the city, heat and dust forced Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal to finish his roadshow in a hurry.

He was canvassing for the party’s North-East Delhi candidate Anand Kumar, who is pitted against BJP’s Manoj Tiwari and Congress’ sitting MP J P Agarwal.

His campaign trail went past five Lok Sabha constituencies in three hours. The campaign was scheduled between 8.30 am to 3 pm. “We started at around 10 am. Arvind has been running a mild fever. He was seen popping pills during the campaign,” said one of the organisers.

The roadshow in North-East Delhi started from Tisra Pusta in Sonia Vihar and passed through Kajhuri, Bhajanpura, New Mustfabad and Seelampur.

Kejriwal fired a salvo at BJP and Congress, holding both the parties responsible for AAP quitting the government in Delhi.

“BJP and Congress were favouring Mukesh Ambani. That was the main reason why they didn’t allow us to run the government in Delhi,” he said.

He also accused both the parties for cornering the then AAP government for its welfare decisions.

 Throughout his road show, residents cheered for the AAP chief from their windows and balconies. At several places, women performed ‘aarti’ and people garlanded him.

Local issues

On few occasions, he spoke about local issues of Trans-Yamuna area, mainly water and electricity. His address to gatherings was mostly brief.

Kejriwal said that he was confident of Aam Aadmi Party’s victory in Varanasi and Amethi from where the party is taking on Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha polls.

Kejriwal is contesting from Varanasi while another Aam Aadmi Party leader Kumar Vishwas has entered electoral battle against Rahul in Amethi. “After April 10, I am going to Varanasi to defeat BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi,” he said.