New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal is trying to gain a hold of Kerala. AAP is trying to do so with an alliance with a tiny party backed by a corporate group. The Twenty 20 gained control of the panchayat in Kerala’s Kizhakkambalam seven years ago, winning 17 of the 19 wards.
The party is the CSR wing of the Ernakulam-based Anna-Kitex group of companies. It had entered politics in 2015. Last year it banged a win over three neighboring panchayats and declared its intention to contest the assembly elections.
Announcing the alliance, Kejriwal tweeted: “I’m happy to announce an alliance with Kerala’s Twenty20 Party. Shri Sabu Jacob (Kitex Group MD and Twenty20 chief coordinator) is a Big Industrialist but he decided to work in a small panchayat. He turned panchayat’s ₹ 36 lakh deficit to ₹ 14 crores FD. Together we will transform Kerala.”
He said that when elections were contested in Delhi, they did not have money, people, or candidates. Whereas the other parties had three-time MLAs and four-time MLAs. He said, “The elections we contested in Delhi — we did not have money, people, or candidates. Other parties had three-time MLAs and four-time MLAs… There was Sheila Dikshit. We had a housewife in Shalimar Bagh. who beat a 4-time MLA. A student, Akhilesh Tripathi from Model Town, beat a four-time MLA.”
He also drew parallels with Punjab. At Punjab AAP had duplicated its sweeping victories of Delhi, saying “Do you know who beat Charanjit Singh Channi, the Chief Minister? A technician who worked at a mobile shop”.
This he said was possible because of the corruption-free governance, which is focusing on welfare. He cited the perks of free power and water, healthcare, and education reforms which AAP considers among its biggest achievements.
Kejriwal’s trip to the South came to India after his landslide victory in Punjab earlier this year. The party registered in Goa during the same elections and is expecting to gain traction in Gujarat for the state polls later this year.
For a long period, Kerala had alternated between the Left-led LDF and the Congress-led UDF. But in the last election, the tradition of voting out the incumbent was broken, as the Pinarayi Vijayan government got to serve its second term. The BJP also has found a toehold in the state with a single seat.
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