Clearly gearing up for the upcoming Assembly elections in Punjab, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal said his party would repeat Delhi in Punjab.
“Congress will be next in line [runner-up] in the Punjab polls,” Mr. Kejriwal told a select group of editors from the print media at his official Flagstaff Road residence in the Civil Lines area of the city.
Sitting smack in the middle of his Ministers, a relaxed Mr. Kejriwal said that people voted for AAP with a lot of hope and expectation.
According to him, when people voted out the Congress and elected the BJP, or vice versa, they didn’t do so with hope. “The people don’t vote for them with hope,” Mr. Kejriwal stated.
Mr. Kejriwal claimed that AAP already had workers at every electoral booth in Punjab, a far cry from the state of the Congress party. “The Congress party talks in the air,” he said.
“By the time the others [Congress, Akali Dal-BJP] wake up, their game will be over,” he claimed, adding that the party would reveal their chief ministerial candidate in the state at the right moment.
On the party’s plans for Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Kejriwal replied, “We will go step-by-step. We don’t have the bandwith in UP.”
The Chief Minister also refused to get into AAP’s national plans if the party won the Assembly poll in Punjab. Asked about AAP’s plans for the 2019 general elections, Mr. Kejriwal said he would respond in 2018.
Asked by an editor why he practiced the politics of confrontation, the Chief Minister said he and his party were at the receiving end from the Centre as displayed by the actions of the Central Bureau of Investigation.
“I am willing to do anything to avoid confrontation,” the Chief Minister said. “When I speak up [against the Centre], people say I am fighting with the Centre.”
The Chief Minister said his decision last year not to keep any portfolio with him had worked well for the Government’s functioning.
Mr. Kejriwal said he had fixed set days in the week to review the performance of individual Ministers handling different portfolios.
“And, I am handling the politics. I am like a shield to all of them [ministers],” the Chief Minister added.
