PANAJI
Aam Aadmi Party's National Convenor, Arvind Kejriwal, on Monday urged party volunteers to be selfless for the cause, even as he lost no opportunity to take potshots at BJP and Congress on his second day in the State.
Addressing a meeting of AAP volunteers at Instituto Menezes Bragança on Monday, Kejriwal exhorted them to give both their time and money without expecting any post or ticket in return.
“I have before me local volunteers from Goa as well as volunteers who have come down from Amravati, AP, TN, Puducherry, Gujarat, Delhi, and many others. Who are these volunteers? Who are we? We are the same people who used to earlier be voters who would vote every five years. With a sense of despair that nothing would change, even voting levels dropped,” he said, adding that whenever people voted it always was to teach the ruling party a lesson.
“People used to either vote for BJP or Congress depending on who was in power and to put the other to the sword, and that’s how it continued. There was never positive voting. Only teaching each other a lesson. This was getting too much,” Kejriwal said.
“The people have decided that enough is enough, people who are here today are leaving everything behind. Who do they love? They don't have love for AAP, rather they have love for the rule of the people,” Kejriwal said, adding that people who used to earlier never vote at all are today donating their money and time to the party.
“There is a ray of hope. Something is changing. That's why people are here,” he said.
He cautioned the volunteers to not hope for tickets or posts in the party. “If you are hoping for posts, tickets or money, you are in the wrong place, please leave,” he said.
He tasked volunteers in Goa to go door to door informing people of the achievements of the AAP government in Delhi, which he said will be replicated here.
Kejriwal compared the BJP and Congress to a husband and wife couple where they both know each other's secrets but don't expose the other. Goa's ex-chief minister Manohar Parrikar, he claimed, keeps files pertaining to Congress leaders but doesn't take any action, whereas the Congress party in the opposition never raises their voice against the BJP. Both the parties share good relations and make a fool of the people, he stated.
He also asked the people not to fear losing out on government schemes or being victimised for being seen with the AAP. “We will come to power and give you what you lost out on, nay you will come back to power and will be able to give yourselves the money you lost out on.”
Kejriwal said that it was up to Goans to come out and stand up for themselves and make the election into a revolution.
“Goa meets both the criteria for the 'AAP'rising. There is disillusionment with the present government and a smart electorate,” he said.
Kejriwal also paid homage to Goa’s first chief minister Dayanand Bandodkar, the father of Goan nationalism, Tristao da Bragança Cunha and the father of Goa’s Opinion Poll, Dr Jack de Sequeira. The meeting also commemorated the posthumous birthday of Bismarque Dias with a minute’s silence.
