NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday, September 11, 2021, told party workers and volunteers to not harbour desires for positions and tickets to contest polls, but work for the society and the people. To prepare his forces for assembly elections in Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat as part of its national expansion plans, the AAP national convenor, in his virtual address of the 10th National Council of the party, said he does not want people to say that AAP has become like the BJP and the Congress.
“Anna ji used to say politics is based on only one principle — Satta through Paisa and then Paisa through Satta. AAP is here to change this concept. We are here for the people and their trust. Our purpose is not to get into power by hook or by crook. Don’t think about bagging a position, devote yourselves to society. Do your work so brilliantly that we have to come to you to appoint you for a position and not vice-versa. Remember, if you have to approach us for a position or ticket then it means you do not deserve it,” said Kejriwal.
The chief minister said after seeing the way AAP is running the government in Delhi, people across India have started feeling that “the AAP is the only hope”. “When we came into power in Delhi, back then people would say they had one term and their party would finish after that. But now that we have been successfully running a government, people look at our work and say that we are the only hope they have left.” Kejriwal also invoked the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita saying everyone in the society looks up to its leader, and told volunteers to always maintain “righteousness”, and make sacrifices like Bhagat Singh and Baba Saheb Ambedkar, “two supreme ideals of our party”.
“We see what transpires in other parties. Dozens of people fight for one seat, parties breakaway, factions are formed. We don’t want that to happen with our party. If something like that happens, the faith and trust stored in our party will cease to exist forever,” said the chief minister.
Kejriwal also urged AAP workers to spread the message about the Delhi government’s “tremendous” efforts to fight the pandemic. The AAP leader also listed the home isolation policy, the country’s first plasma bank in Delhi, and monetary compensation to healthcare workers who died on Covid duty as the party’s exemplary efforts to provide relief.