Ahmedabad: Replicating what he claims to be his Punjab experiment, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday gave a call to the people at large to name a chief ministerial candidate of his party for the Gujarat elections.
Taking a jibe at the BJP, Kejriwal announced that his party would name the Gujarat CM candidate on November 4 based on the majority opinion of the people and “not dump anyone on them without asking the people.”
"Today, I would like to ask the people of Gujarat as to who they want to see as the next CM of Gujarat. To know the opinion of the public, we are releasing a number — 6357000360. You can send SMS, WhatsApp messages, and leave voice messages. We are also releasing e-mail — aapnocm@gmail.com," said Kejriwal.
The deadline to submit nominations is 5 pm on November 3.
Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi without naming him, Kejriwal asserted the BJP dropped former Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and brought in Bhupendra Patel in his place but didn’t bother to consult the people of the State.
Removal of Rupani cabinet was an admission by the BJP
The AAP chief said removal of Rupani and his entire Cabinet was an admission by the BJP that all was not right with its government in Gujarat. “Why was Rupani removed?”, Kejriwal asked.
And went on, “Was he removed because he was corrupt or inefficient? Why was he removed? He was removed a year ago. When Rupani was made the CM, they bothered what the people thought. They keep changing chief ministers without asking the public.”
But this was not how the AAP worked, he said, adding that his party would always ask the people to decide who they want as their chief minister.
Citing Punjab elections, he pointed out, “We had asked people who they wanted as the next CM. The people chose Bhagwant Mann by a huge majority, and we made him the CM honouring the wishes of the people.”
