Ahmedabad (Gujarat): Aam Aadmi Party convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday night had dinner at an auto-rickshaw driver's home in Ahmedabad after accepting his invitation, but the event was preceded by high drama after the Delhi CM got into a heated argument with police outside his hotel over security protocol. Kejriwal, accompanied by a couple of AAP leaders boarded the auto-rickshaw and travelled to the driver's home.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reacting to dinner at the driver's home, took potshots at the AAP leader and dubbed him an actor. Before heading for dinner, Kejriwal had a heated argument with some police outside the five-star hotel where he was staying over security protocol as the Chief Minister did not want policemen to follow him to the house of his host, the auto-rickshaw driver Vikram Dantani.
Kejriwal, on a two-day Gujarat visit, as part of the AAP's campaign for the upcoming Assembly polls, addressed a gathering of auto-rickshaw drivers in Ahmedabad in the afternoon. After his address, auto-rickshaw driver Dantani, a resident of the city's Ghatlodia area, requested Kejriwal to have dinner at his home. "I am your fan. In a video I saw on social media, you went to have dinner at the home of an auto driver in Punjab. So, will you come to my home for dinner?" asked Dantani.
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The Delhi CM immediately replied in the affirmative to the driver's invitation. "Autowalas of Punjab and Gujarat love me. Should I come (dinner) today evening at 8 pm?" the AAP leader replied. Kejriwal told the auto driver to pick him up from his hotel and take him to his house in his auto-rickshaw. As agreed, Dantani reached the five-star hotel on Sindhu Bhavan Road and took the Delhi CM in his three-wheeler for dinner at his home.
AAP Gujarat state president Gopal Italia and the party's national joint general secretary Isudan Gadhvi also sat in Dantani's auto-rickshaw with the Delhi CM. After the argument over security protocol, police sat beside the auto-rickshaw driver, while two police cars escorted the three-wheeler till Ghatlodia. Kejriwal and other state AAP leaders had dinner while sitting on the floor in Dantani's modest house. Taking a jibe at Kejriwal, Gujarat Minister of State for Home and BJP leader Harsh Sanghvi, while reacting to a video of a dinner invitation earlier in the day, tweeted, "What an actor!"