Upbeat Kejriwal: We’ll beat all, form govt in Karnataka

By NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday sent out a clear message that it was taking the upcoming assembly election seriously when it inducted popular farmer leader Kodihalli Chandrashekhar into the party.

Chandrashekhar is the president of a prominent faction of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS).

He is the second prominent figure to join AAP in Karnataka after retired top cop Bhaskar Rao was inducted into the party in New Delhi two weeks ago.

Welcoming Chandrashekhar into the party, AAP convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said his party will come to power in Karnataka. “We formed a government in Delhi and then in Punjab. Now, we will form our next government in Karnataka,” he said.

Kejriwal then attacked both the centre and state governments and the previous Congress government in Karnataka for supporting corruption.

“The current BJP government is a ‘40 percent commission’ government,” he said while referring to the death of contractor, Santosh Patil, and his alleged suicide note against senior BJP leader K Eshwarappa. “The previous Congress government was a ‘20 percent commission’ government. Delhi has a zero per cent commission government because there is a hardcore honest government there. We do not take a single paise as a bribe,” he said.

‘Which party riots’

Referring to the communal clashes in Delhi and elsewhere in Karnataka, Kejriwal said all the rowdies, rogues and corrupt across the country go to ‘one political party’, to which the crowd responded saying ‘BJP’.

“A Minister’s son murders farmers by driving his jeep over them, but his father is rewarded with a ministerial position. Whoever commits rape gets a rousing welcome. A small girl was raped, they took out a ‘Shobha Yatra’. In such a scenario how can the country prosper?” he asked.

“We don’t know about engineering riots. There are riots across the country. Who is doing this? Which party riots? People of the country do not want riots. They want peace, they want to live peacefully,” the AAP chief said.

He said if people want riots, they should vote for “them” but if they need schools, hospitals, free electricity, free transport, free water, they should vote for the AAP.

“AAP does not know anything about rowdyism because his party is of gentle people and patriots,” he said.

‘Farmers should unite’

Addressing the event, Chandrashekhar urged all farmers to unite to defeat the Basavaraj Bommai’s anti-farmer government in Karnataka. “In the past, Gundu Rao’s government had lost power after it ordered firing on the farmers during the Navalgund uprising. The current antifarmer governments could also be defeated if farmers united and came onto the streets. The only solution to farmers’ woes would be their entry into politics and AAP is the ‘political voice’ of the farmers,” he said. He questioned Bommai’s continuance as chief minister despite facing many corruption allegations. “The current government is known as the 40 per cent government. The alternative to the BJP is not the Congress, and the alternative to Congress is not JD(S). The alternative to all the three parties is AAP,” he said. He also requested former Prime Minister Deve Gowda to support them. “Deve Gowda, being a respected senior leader and a farmer’s son, should support our alliance instead of trying to promote only his family members.” Painkiller support for Kejri Kejriwal, who said he would speak in Hindi, began his address with the slogans, such as Bharat Mata Ki Jai, Inquilab Zindabad and Vande Mataram. He said that he decided to attend and speak at the event despite having a dental surgery a couple of days ago. “I had to take painkiller injections, but I decided to go ahead because I respect farmers,” he said.