Kejriwal administers loyalty oath to AAP councillors in Chandigarh

Chandigarh, December 30

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Amid reports of horse-trading, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today administered an oath to newly elected 14 councillors to not leave the party.

He was in Chandigarh to hold a roadshow to thank people for their support in the Municipal Corporation poll. He was standing on a truck along with MP Bhagwant Mann and local leaders during the roadshow that started from the Aroma light point in Sector 22 and culminated at the Sector 22/23 light point. The police had barricaded the road to facilitate the roadshow.

“…I will never let the trust of public break…I will work with full honesty and never take bribe. I will not do any wrong work or let others do it…I will never leave the party…I will never betray the city and the party…If I do so, then the Chandigarh public should not vote for me next time,” was the oath he administered to the councillors. Addressing the gathering, Kejriwal said, “You have done a ‘chamatkar’…The Chandigarh wave will now travel to Punjab. We will do the works of all, including the BJP, the Congress and SAD, so that they also vote for us next time. Delhi is the first state we won and Chandigarh is the first MC where the party has won. Seeing our work here, we will get votes in other parts of the country also.”

Earlier speaking on the occasion, Bhagwant Mann said, “It used to be City Beautiful. We will bring Chandigarh back to the number 1 spot from the 66th rank in cleanliness. On the lines of the Delhi model, we will develop Chandigarh also.”

On the party winning 14 seats out of a total of 35 seats, Mann added, “Chandigarh ‘jhanki hai, Punjab abhi baki hai.’ We win capitals first. We won the Capital of India and will win the whole country now. Here, we have won Chandigarh and will win Punjab now.”

Besides being centre of the city, the show was organised in Sector 22 to give a political message. The BJP’s sitting Mayor Ravi Kant Sharma was defeated from here by AAP’s Damanpreet Singh, a dhaba owner. City AAP co-in-charge Pradeep Chhabra also lives in this sector.

Cong raises Covid fear

The city Congress on Thursday slammed AAP’s roadshow citing the increasing Covid cases in the city. In a press statement, the party has stated that while Arvind Kejriwal has imposing night curfew in Delhi and ordered for closure of malls and gyms, he is gathering a crowd here in Chandigarh. — TNS

Traffic hit

The roadshow led to traffic jams in and around Sector 22. Some had to wait for a long time for the roadshow to end while the others took long routes to reach their destinations. The police had diverted the traffic coming to the road stretch from the Aroma light point till the Sector 22/23 light point.

Covid norms flouted

During the roadshow, AAP leaders, including Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann, were seen without masks. A large number of supporters, too, were without masks and hardly anyone was maintaining social distance.