Gearing up for Lok Sabha elections due next year, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal gave a clarion call to oust the BJP from power while simultaneously urging people not to vote for Congress saying every vote to Congress will help BJP. “The AAP is the only alternative as every vote to Congress will help BJP,” he said. This he said while addressing a public gathering at Rohini.
He said people don’t want to vote for Rahul Gandhi. Trageting PM Modi for bringing in reforms like “demonetisation” and “GST” he said, “When I talk to people they say Modi has ruined us, he introduced demonetisation, GST and unleashed sealing. Our business is ruined, but what is the choice? We don’t want to vote for Rahul Gandhi”.
“The AAP is your party, run by you, working for you. BJP-Congress run by corporate, work for them. Don’t fall for RSS murmur campaign in support of Congress”, he added.
He targeted the PM on the proposed reforms in the power sector ahead of Lok Sabha polls due next year. He said the PM wants to end the power subsidy and hike the electricity tariffs “manifold”. While addressing a public gathering at Rohini on Saturday he said he has written to the Chief Ministers of different States and will visit them for a consensus against the amendments.
“If proposed amendment to the power Act is passed it will break common man’s back and power tariff in Delhi will become Rs 7.50 per unit for all consumers in every category,” he said.
Kejriwal has written letters to CMs of non-BJP States that includes Mamata Banerjee, N Chandrababu Naidu, Pinarayi Vijayan, H D Kumaraswamy, V Narayansamy, Edapaddi K Palaniswami, Lal Thanhawla, Amarinder Singh, K Chandrashekhar Rao, Naveen Patnaik and Pawan Chamling.
He said he will be travelling to different States from next week to meet respective CMs and will convince them to stand together to stall the bill in the Rajya Sabha so that it is not passes before the general elections.
“I will be meeting CMs like Mamata Banerjee, N Chandra Babu Naidu, Pinarayi Vijayan, HD Kumaraswamy and several others for consensus against the proposed amendments to the electricity act. Will request them to vote against the amendments in the Rajya Sabha,” he said addressing the gathering.
In his letter, Kejriwal wrote, “The proposed amendments to the Electricity Act 2003 are a matter of serious concern as they concentrate all powers in the electricity sector in the hands of Central Government to the exclusion of State Governments and it will lead to an immediate steep hike in electricity tariffs.”
“It appears that the motive of the Central Government is to impose and hasten privatisation of electricity all over the country and to favour a few companies. By concentrating all powers with itself, the Centre will be able to do that,” the letter said.
Kejriwal alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress party are run by the corporate and work in their interest.
“I have written to Chief Ministers of different states on the dangers of the proposed amendment and how it will break the back of the common man. I have urged them to stand against the proposed amendments,” said Kejriwal.
“I am sure that we would be able to stall the bill in the Rajya Sabha, but it will be your duty to defeat Modi’s BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections so that these anti-people amendments are not passed”, he added. He urged the people to oust BJP from power in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections due next year
“Citizens of Delhi who use up to 200 units are charged Rs. 1 per unit, while those using up to 400 units are charged Rs. 2.50 per unit, once this amendment is done both the categories will have to pay Rs 7.50 per unit. This would hit around 90 percent of all consumers in Delhi hard. The amendment would lead to huge increase in tariffs all across the country immediately for small and medium consumers as well as farmers,” said Kejriwal.
