MP: Arvind Kejriwal to address AAP rally in Bhopal, may make 'big announcement'

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will address a rally of AAP in Bhopal on Tuesday as he kicks off the party’s campaign for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, due later this year. The rally, to be held at BHEL Dussehra Maidan in the state capital, is expected to be a show of strength by the Kejriwal-led party, which is trying to gain a toehold in the Madhya Pradesh politics traditionally dominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress. An Aam Aadmi Party functionary said Kejriwal is expected to make some big announcements at the rally. Kejriwal will be joined by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann at the rally, organisers said.

”Kejriwal is expected to make some big announcements. We are giving very cheap electricity in Delhi, and free quality education and health facilities to the poor unlike what is happening in MP. Here power and health facilities are very costly,” an AAP leader told PTI from the rally venue.

”We have worked hard to ensure one lakh people across MP attend the rally. After this, we are going to hold big rallies in all the divisional headquarters in the state. AAP has enrolled more than five lakh members since a drive was launched by organisation general secretary Sandeep Pathak on February 4,” former MP AAP chief Pankaj Singh said.

The AAP, which recently announced it would contest all 230 Assembly seats in MP, is buoyed by its performance in the urban local body polls in July-August last year, where it claimed it had garnered 6.3 per cent of the vote share.

It had fielded 1,500 candidates for local body polls and the party managed to win the mayor’s post in Singrauli in the state’s Vindh region.

The 2018 elections in Madhya Pradesh threw up a hung Assembly, with the Congress emerging as the largest party with 114 seats in the 230-member House. The BJP won 109 seats.

The Congress formed a coalition government under Kamal Nath, but it fell in March 2020 after several MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia walked out and joined the BJP, paving the way for Shivraj Singh Chouhan to return as chief minister.