Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal will spearhead AAP’s Lok Sabha campaign in the national capital and other states, which begins with her maiden roadshow on Saturday in support of party’s East Delhi candidate Kuldeep Kumar, senior party leader Atishi said.
Addressing a press conference here, Delhi minister Atishi said Sunita will seek votes and blessings for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the absence of her husband who is in judicial custody.
“In protest against the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal, his wife Sunita Kejriwal will campaign to seek blessings for him and to seek votes for AAP candidates. She will seek blessings for him from the people of Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat and Haryana,” Atishi said.
“She will hold a roadshow in East Delhi tomorrow and will seek blessings from the people of East Delhi for Arvind Kejriwal. On April 28, she will hold a roadshow in the West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency,” Atishi added.
Sunita, a retired IRS officer, is slowly emerging out of the shadows to assume a bigger role in the party to give a fillip to the AAP’s campaigning which has been affected by the chief minister’s arrest in March in a money laundering case.
Kejriwal’s would remain in judicial custody till May 7 as per a court order.
Atishi alleged that Kejriwal was arrested to stop him from campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls.
“I want to tell the BJP that their gamble has backfired completely. Whether it is Delhi, Punjab or the rest of the country, the common people are protesting against the arrest of Kejriwal, protesting against the dictatorship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, protesting against this attack on democracy.
“The people are unanimously saying that they will respond to Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest with their votes,” she said.
The AAP, which is contesting the Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the Congress in Delhi, has fielded its candidates in East Delhi, West Delhi, South Delhi and New Delhi seats.
In Gujarat, the party is contesting from two seats — Bharuch and Bhavnagar — while in Haryana, the party is in the fray from Kurukshetra. In Punjab, it is not in any alliance with the Congress and is contesting all 13 seats.
The Congress has fielded its candidates in North East Delhi, North West Delhi and Chandni Chowk seats.
Since the chief minister’s arrest on March 21, Sunita Kejriwal has been acting as a channel of communication between her husband and the AAP and its MLAs.
She has so far held three digital media briefings mainly focused on communicating the chief minister’s messages to the people and Delhi cabinet ministers.
However, in March and earlier this month, she addressed rallies of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties in Delhi and Jharkhand.
In both the rallies, she declared six guarantees of the AAP convener, including free power to the poor, proper health and educational facilities in each village and towns in the country, if the opposition INDIA bloc was voted to power at the Centre.
(With inputs from agencies)
