Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will address a public meeting and a workers’ conference besides meeting a jailed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lawmaker during a three-day tour of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stronghold of Gujarat beginning January 6, his office said on Thursday.
The announcement came as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was expected to issue a fourth summons to Kejriwal in connection with a money laundering probe linked to alleged irregularities in the Delhi excise policy. The BJP attacked Kejriwal after he skipped the third ED summons on Wednesday. An official of the agency said the repeated disregard of summons was scuttling the agency’s probe.
Kejriwal’s office said he will be in Gujarat until January 8. “He will hold a public meeting and address party workers conference in Gujarat besides meeting jailed AAP MLA [member of legislative assembly] Chaitra Vasava. The CM [chief minister] will also meet the family of Vasava.”
Vasava, who represents Dediapada in the Gujarat assembly constituency, surrendered to the police on December 15 in a case related to alleged threats to forest department personnel and firing a round in the air.
In August, AAP’s Gujarat unit chief Isudan Gadhvi said the party will fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the Congress as part of the Opposition’s Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.
The BJP stormed back to power in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, last year by winning 156 of 182 seats. The Congress managed to win just 17 and AAP five seats.
The BJP, which has ruled Gujarat since the 1990s, swept the national election in the state in 2014 and 2019 and won all 26 seats. Kejriwal contested the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat against Modi in 2014 but lost by a margin of 337000 votes.
