Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday ended up accepting a dinner invite and also a ride home by an auto rickshaw driver during his interaction with the auto and cab drivers on Monday in Ludhiana.
“I am a big fan of yours. I am an auto-wallah,” said a man, taking the mic during a question and answer session of the AAP’s “auto samvad” programme.
“Sir, you help auto drivers. Sir, will you come for a meal to this poor auto-wallah’s home? I am inviting you dil se (from the heart),” said an autor driver, later identified as Dilip Kumar Tewari, as the room cheered encouragingly.
“Absolutely, tonight?” said Kejriwal, with the crowd present in the auditorium broke into louder cheering.
“Ji...Tonight only,” said the auto driver, all elated.
Kejriwal asked him if he can “bring Bhagwant (Mann), (Harpal Singh) Cheema along with him...We all will come”; and the auditorium was reverberated with the loud chants of “Kejriwal zindabad (long live Kejriwal)”.
At the same time, Tewari offered to take his high-profile guests in his own auto to his home, which Kejriwal accepted. Kejriwal reached Tewari’s home in his auto, along with Punjab State unit president Bhagwant Mann and the Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Harpal Singh Cheema, and had a meal by sitting on the floor.
Kejriwal, whose outreach to auto drivers has been a winning strategy in Delhi, had told his audience, “I am like your brother. Come to me for anything. Even if your auto breaks down.”
“When AAP contested the elections for the first time in 2013, auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers played a 70 per cent role in that victory.
Auto, rickshaw and tempo drivers also made significant contributions in the next two record victories,” admitted Kejriwal, adding the biggest role was played by putting AAP’s poster behind the auto rickshaw.
In the same way, Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann inaugurated the ‘Ek Mauka Kejriwal’ poster for Punjab’s auto-rickshaw drivers on the stage, which Kejriwal later pasted on an auto. Notably, Kejriwal had a similar interaction with auto and taxi drivers in Uttarakhand, which will also vote next year for a new government along with Punjab.
Earlier, Kejriwal listened to the problems and difficulties of auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers of Punjab and their suggestions for a permanent solution under the ‘Auto Samwad Program’, and assured that after the formation of AAP Government in Punjab in 2022, they would solve the problems of auto and taxi drivers of Punjab on priority basis like the auto drivers of Delhi.
He said necessary reforms and changes will be made in the rules and regulations as has been done in Delhi.
“Due to the unparalleled work done by the Delhi Government for auto and taxi drivers, every auto driver in Delhi considers me (Kejriwal) as his brother. In the same way, today, I have come to be your brother. I have come to build a relationship. Make me your brother; I will solve all your problems by becoming a brother. Not only the problems of auto, but children’s education not getting better at home, issues related to health; I will solve all the problems,” said Kejriwal while also announcing the formation of a joint corporation based on auto rickshaw and taxi drivers, so that they could formulate their own policies.
