After turning up nearly two hours late to a venue packed with thousands of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supporters, Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday eventually abandoned his first roadshow this election season as the time given to the party to reach the election office ran out just before the rally reached Jantar Mantar.
The party chief who began his roadshow from Valmiki Mandir at Mandir Marg was supposed to end the rally at Jantar Mantar with a speech after which he was supposed to go to the election office to file his nomination. However, neither did the rally reach Jantar Mantar nor was the nomination filed on Tuesday. Kejriwal abandoned the roadshow at Gole Dak Khana and went home.
Kejriwal will now file his nomination on Wednesday along with the chief ministerial candidates of rival parties BJP and Congress. The roadshow which lasted nearly two-and-a-half hours however saw a thundering response from the masses as over 10,000 people thronged the venue and walked in front of Kejriwal’s truck. Senior leaders Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh and founder member of AAP Kumar Vishwas were with Kejriwal throughout the roadshow.
Before beginning the campaign Kejriwal, Vishwas and Sisodia went to the Valmiki Mandir first to offer prayers. While the party’s new song by Vishal Dadlani played in the background on loop, the party had innovatively placed groups of workers among the massive crowd who were enunciating the party’s 14-point agenda for the coming election.
As the road show crept forward, the groups holding placards with the party’s agenda printed on them, moved among the crowd and informally put forward the party’s manifesto. The agenda highlighted all the points that the party had raised as a part of their Delhi Dialogue series, i.e. youth, women’s security, Jan lokpal, Swaraj, resettlement colonies, unauthorized colonies, rural Delhi, power, water, traders’ issues, health and education.
The 10,000 odd supporters at the rally were not just a random set of people, but a well mobilized and trained crowd that the AAP worked hard to gather over several months.
A ward coordinator from Gandhi Nagar revealed that nearly four to five buses from each ward were filled and brought for the road show. With each constituency having three to four wards, such a massive crowd was not too difficult to gather for the party. Similarly, volunteers from neighbouring States like Haryana and Punjab were also seen at the road show.
Another interesting aspect of the road show was that most of the young supporters were seen dancing with coordinated steps to Dadlani’s song ‘Paanch saal Kejriwal’. Somewhat in the fashion of a flash mob, the dancing added steam and enthusiasm to the rally which worked effectively in wooing people. Several pedestrians, auto drivers and even a few commuters got off and joined the road show because of the vibe.
“Earlier I was very irritated as the traffic was completely stalled because of the road show, but then I saw the enthusiasm of the people and the positive vibe of the rally. I just parked my car on one side and joined the rally,” said Ramesh who was stuck on Mandir Marg due to the rally.