Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener, on Monday promised that people of Gujarat will get free electricity if his party is voted to power in the forthcoming Gujarat Assembly election to be held later this year.
On the second day of his visit to the poll-bound State, Mr. Kejriwal addressed a town hall “Bijli Jansamvad” event where he spoke about how the AAP governments in Delhi and Punjab have offered free electricity, bringing massive relief to poor and middle class households.
“Why is electricity very expensive in Gujarat? Why is the BJP government not able to provide subsidised power to the poor and middle class households in the State,” he asked.
“Gujarat can also get cheap or free 24-hour electricity, but there is one condition, and that is you will have to change the politics, government, and bring in an honest party to government. I will be back on Sunday with a solution to Gujarat’s electricity problem,” he added.
According to him, if Gujarat Ministers and politicians of the BJP could enjoy zero electricity bills despite consuming thousands of units, then why not couldn’t the general public who were paying taxes.
“If farmers in Gujarat are supplied electricity at night, then Ministers should also be given the opportunity to work at night for some time at the Secretariat,” he remarked, referring to an issue raised by a farmer that power supply for agriculture at night adversely affected their lives.
Mr. Kejriwal said that he would visit Gujarat once a week and hold a dialogue with people on various issues like minimum support price for farm produce, a movement against corruption and other key issues till the elections.
He told AAP workers and cadres to visit each household in the State to create awareness about free power, free healthcare and better education being provided to the people of Delhi.
“I have seen that some people get electricity bills in thousands of rupees. How can poor people afford it? There is corruption in the system and therefore inflated bills are given to the people,” he said, stressing that only the AAP government can eliminate corrupt practices from the system.
“Our government in Delhi ensured that the power companies stopped fleecing people. We don’t take donations from power companies and allow them to loot people by giving inflated bills,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
He claimed that nearly 73% people of Delhi were not getting any power bills as they consumed less than 300 units, which is provided free while 80% people of Punjab would also not get bills from July 1.
The AAP has been holding rallies and campaigns on the issue of electricity bills in Gujarat ahead of the Assembly polls.
