Kejriwal to visit Surat to announce AAP's first pre-poll 'guarantee'

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be on a two-day visit to Gujarat from Wednesday during which he will announce his outfit AAP's his first poll-related "guarantee" for the people of the poll-bound state, a party leader said on Tuesday.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener will land in Surat on Wednesday evening and on Thursday he will unveil his "first guarantee" to the people of Gujarat, the party's state general secretary, Manoj Sorathiya, told reporters. "On July 21, Arvind Kejriwal will give his first guarantee to the people of Gujarat. Along with this, he will also hold a review meeting with the state leadership regarding the upcoming elections in Gujarat," Sorathiya said. This will be Kejriwal's second visit to the BJP-ruled state this month. On July 3, the Delhi CM had held a town hall in Ahmedabad on the issue of free electricity. During the interaction, he had said providing free electricity to people was possible in Gujarat and he will soon come up with a formula on how the AAP can make available this benefit if voted to power in the state, where Assembly polls are due by the year-end. Presenting the "Delhi model," the AAP leader had said free electricity was possible in the state if corruption was removed. The AAP has made free electricity a key poll plank in Gujarat, where the party has positioned itself as a major contender for power. Elections in the state have traditionally seen a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress. The BJP, which has ruled Gujarat uninterrupted for the last 27 years, has criticised Kejriwal's model of "freebies," with state party president C R Paatil accusing him of "fooling" the people with his promises. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently made a remark on revadi culture of offering freebies for winning votes in an indirect attack on Kejriwal. The Prime Minister had used 'revadi', a popular north Indian sweet often distributed during festivals, as a metaphor for freebies being promised by various parties in their attempts to win power and said the people, especially the youth, should guard against this trend.