Mehsana: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday urged the people of Gujarat to vote for change in the forthcoming Assembly polls and give a chance to his outfit Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to work for development of the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state. On the second day of his six-day campaigning for the AAP in Gujarat, Sisodia said BJP leaders in Delhi will get jitters once the people of the state make up their mind to vote out the saffron outfit in the year-end polls.
"When the people of Gujarat started contemplating pressing the button on 'broom' (AAP election symbol), they (a reference to BJP) came to me and asked me to leave Kejriwal (Delhi CM and party convener Arvind Kejriwal) and become the chief minister. "I said 'I am not for sale'...I will not bow before the big government in Delhi (BJP regime at the Centre)," he said, addressing a gathering in the temple town of Bahucharaji in north Gujarat's Mehsana district.
The senior AAP leader alleged he was threatened with action by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
"I said do whatever you wish to do. I have not stolen anything, why should I be scared? Those who have stolen will be scared, not me," said the AAP leader, whose home was raided by the CBI last month in connection with the Delhi Excise Policy. Sisodia, who holds education among a host of other portfolios, said he is interested in improving condition of government schools, constructing new hospitals and providing jobs, and not in becoming chief minister.
He promised to bring about large-scale changes in Gujarat if the AAP is voted to power in the state like what the party has done in Delhi and is now doing in Punjab.
Gujarat AAP leader Isudan Gadhvi accompanied Sisodia during the campaigning. Sisodia started the second day of his campaign by participating in a "Tiranga Yatra" in Mehsana city. During the roadshow, he said if people want to stop whatever has been going on in Gujarat for the last 27 years under the BJP rule, then they should give a chance to the Kejriwal-led party to govern the state. Sisodia offered prayers at the Bahucharaji Temple before addressing the gathering. (PTI)
