This story is from January 24, 2020

In slums of Kalkaji, Arvind Kejriwal seeks votes for Atishi, AAP’s development work

A series of road shows attended by AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal in south Delhi on Thursday culminated in the evening in Govindpuri, which falls under party candidate Atishi’s assembly constituency, Kalkaji.
In slums of Kalkaji, Arvind Kejriwal seeks votes for Atishi, AAP’s development work
Atishi said she was sure that the people of Kalkaji would vote to make Arvind Kejriwal the CM once again
NEW DELHI: A series of road shows attended by AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal in south Delhi on Thursday culminated in the evening in Govindpuri, which falls under party candidate Atishi’s assembly constituency, Kalkaji.
While seeking votes for the party candidates for Delhi government’s development work, the chief minister again urged the supporters of the rival parties to vote for AAP in the February 8 assembly polls.
“I appeal even to the supporters of BJP, Congress and other parties. This is a different election (than the Lok Sabha polls) and everyone should come together to vote for the broom (AAP’s symbol),” Kejriwal said. “A sea of people had arrived in Kalkaji and the level of enthusiasm gives strength to the party,” he tweeted later.
Atishi said the party was getting stronger in the area day by day with the blessings of locals. “I am sure people of Kalkaji will vote to make Arvind Kejriwal the chief minister of Delhi again,” she said.
After beginning the evening leg at the Pul Prahaladpur Shiva temple in Tughlaqabad, Kejriwal reached the underbelly of Kalkaji around 5.40pm where Atishi was waiting to join the cavalcade. Starting from Gurudwara Baba Banda Singh Bahadur, the road show passed through a series of JJ clusters between Govindpuri and Kalkaji — Navjeewan, Bhoomiheen and Transit camps.
With more than 25 slum clusters, economically weaker section people form a key vote bank in Kalkaji, besides Punjabis. The slum clusters — Priyanka, Gandhi, Nehru and Karpoori Thakur camps being the prominent ones — had remained a traditional Congress stronghold till AAP won them in the 2015 elections by defeating three-time MLA and current Delhi Congress chief Subhash Chopra. Two local leaders from Congress and BJP switched over to AAP in the chief minister’s presence.

At Navjeewan camp, 60-year-old Kamala Devi was watching the road show passing by her jhuggi. She has received zero bills for both electricity and water in the past four months. “We are just an elderly couple with my son living on the top floor. We save more than Rs 1,500 every billing cycle. This money can be used in bad times,” she said.
Rama Shankar (50), a rickshaw driver, said he had been living in the area since the time when Indira Gandhi used to be the Prime Minister. “Before every election, we have been promised pucca homes in place of jhuggis but nothing had ever materialised,” Shankar said.
All through the hourlong show, Kejriwal, sitting in a chair on a specially designed open air jeep, and Atishi kept on waving at the residents. While hundreds of bikes and cars followed the jeep in Tu ghlaqabad, e-rickshaws dominated the scene in the narrow lanes of Govindpuri.
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA