NEW DELHI: New Delhi: Marking her debut in active political campaigning in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday announced that Sunita Kejriwal – wife of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will be a star campaigner for the party in the Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat.
Her name figures at the top immediately after Arvind Kejriwal on a list of 40 star campaigners for the state.Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 21 in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy and is currently lodged in Tihar jail.
Gujarat goes to polls in a single phase on May 7. Of the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, the AAP is fighting two — Bharuch and Bhavnagar — as part of the INDIA bloc, while its ally Congress is contesting the remaining 24 seats. The AAP has fielded sitting MLAs Chaitar Vasava from Bharuch and Umesh Makwana from Bhavnagar.
Sunita had marked her first big presence at the INDIA Alliance show of unity on March 31 where in her maiden political speech, Sunita read out a message purportedly written by her husband from the Enforcement Directorate’s custody.
Since the Delhi CM and AAP national convener was arrested, Sunita has been seen reading out his messages in digital press conferences and conveying it to party leaders and MLAs. As star campaigner, she will now be stepping into an active role in steering the party’s political outreach in Gujarat seen as a BJP bation and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home turf.
The list of star campaigners submitted to the Election Commission of India also includes names of former deputy CM Manish Sisodia and former health minister Satyendar Jain. They too are currently lodged in Tihar jail. By putting their names on the list, AAP has reiterated its position since the arrest of Kejriwal that he remains the face of the party. While Sisodia is in jail in the same case, Jain is lodged in prison in a separate money laundering case.
The list also has names of AAP’s senior leaders – Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, Rajya Sabha MPs Sandeep Pathak, Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha who has been out of action for quite some time now as he underwent an emergency eye surgery in London at the end of March and was asked to rest for about three weeks. He is yet to return. Delhi ministers including Gopal Rai who is also the Delhi state convener of AAP, Atishi, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Kailash Gahlot and Imran Hussain are on the list of 40.
AAP national secretary Pankaj Gupta and party’s current president Isudan Gadhvi and former Gujarat state president Gopal Italia are also star campaigners. AAP had won five seats in the assembly polls in the state in 2022 with a vote share of 12.92%.
According to AAP, the schedule of star campaigners will be ready soon. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann was in Gujarat where he joined Bhavnagar candidate Umesh Makwana in a roadshow before the latter filed his nomination.
Reacting to the list of star campaigners, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, “In the list released by “AAP”, the name of Arvind Kejriwal’s wife, Sunita Kejriwal, is second, and the name of the CM of Punjab is on the third place while the party’s general secretary Dr Sandeep Pathak is on the fifth. Accusing AAP of indulging in nepotism, Kapoor claimed that the list indicates clearly that Kejriwal’s wife “is now more important than the CM of Punjab and the party’s general secretary.”
Her name figures at the top immediately after Arvind Kejriwal on a list of 40 star campaigners for the state.Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 21 in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy and is currently lodged in Tihar jail.
Gujarat goes to polls in a single phase on May 7. Of the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, the AAP is fighting two — Bharuch and Bhavnagar — as part of the INDIA bloc, while its ally Congress is contesting the remaining 24 seats. The AAP has fielded sitting MLAs Chaitar Vasava from Bharuch and Umesh Makwana from Bhavnagar.
Sunita had marked her first big presence at the INDIA Alliance show of unity on March 31 where in her maiden political speech, Sunita read out a message purportedly written by her husband from the Enforcement Directorate’s custody.
Since the Delhi CM and AAP national convener was arrested, Sunita has been seen reading out his messages in digital press conferences and conveying it to party leaders and MLAs. As star campaigner, she will now be stepping into an active role in steering the party’s political outreach in Gujarat seen as a BJP bation and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home turf.
The list of star campaigners submitted to the Election Commission of India also includes names of former deputy CM Manish Sisodia and former health minister Satyendar Jain. They too are currently lodged in Tihar jail. By putting their names on the list, AAP has reiterated its position since the arrest of Kejriwal that he remains the face of the party. While Sisodia is in jail in the same case, Jain is lodged in prison in a separate money laundering case.
The list also has names of AAP’s senior leaders – Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, Rajya Sabha MPs Sandeep Pathak, Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha who has been out of action for quite some time now as he underwent an emergency eye surgery in London at the end of March and was asked to rest for about three weeks. He is yet to return. Delhi ministers including Gopal Rai who is also the Delhi state convener of AAP, Atishi, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Kailash Gahlot and Imran Hussain are on the list of 40.
AAP national secretary Pankaj Gupta and party’s current president Isudan Gadhvi and former Gujarat state president Gopal Italia are also star campaigners. AAP had won five seats in the assembly polls in the state in 2022 with a vote share of 12.92%.
According to AAP, the schedule of star campaigners will be ready soon. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann was in Gujarat where he joined Bhavnagar candidate Umesh Makwana in a roadshow before the latter filed his nomination.
Reacting to the list of star campaigners, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, “In the list released by “AAP”, the name of Arvind Kejriwal’s wife, Sunita Kejriwal, is second, and the name of the CM of Punjab is on the third place while the party’s general secretary Dr Sandeep Pathak is on the fifth. Accusing AAP of indulging in nepotism, Kapoor claimed that the list indicates clearly that Kejriwal’s wife “is now more important than the CM of Punjab and the party’s general secretary.”
