Chief
Minister Arvind Kejriwal broke his silence for the first time in 10 days
— a period in which his party has seen two of its senior leaders being removed
from its highest decision-making body, an ensuing internal battle and the
emergence of two stings.
In
what seems like a veiled message to the members of his party, he said, “Delhi
will be presented as a model.” He ridiculed the idea that the party would win
other states as if it were “Napoleon”.
Speaking
at an informal cultural event at the Jindal Nature Cure Institute in Bangalore,
where he has been undergoing treatment for the past week, Kejriwal said, “…now
we have to move forward from here and if we present Delhi as a model, then I
feel that it will give rise to a new kind of politics in this country and in
the world. I often fight on this issue within the party.”
Interestingly,
the question of how and when the AAP will expand to other states has been one
of the central issues in the battle currently on in the AAP leadership.
In their letter to the
National Executive, Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan have asked that the
decision on whether to contest state elections be left to state units. Yadav
was also a votary of contesting state elections in Haryana after the Lok Sabha
elections, a move that Kejriwal had shot down then.
At his swearing-in speech a month ago,
Kejriwal said the party had to contest in Delhi and party members making
comments such as the AAP will be contesting in several other states was a sign
of “ahankar (hubris)”.
A month after that speech and many
controversies later, Kejriwal said, “Everyone says now that we have won Delhi
we will win others as well. Are we like Napoleon on a victory march? We have to
change the system, so we will have to give a good government and a good system
in Delhi. If Delhi changes, I have a belief that the whole country will change.
We want you guys to give us your ideas and all of you to participate in this,”
he said.
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