Arvind Kejriwal’s detention non-event: Gujarat BJP

GANDHINAGAR | BHUJ: A day after the fiasco over Arvind Kejriwal’s detention in Gujarat, the state unit of the BJP brushed aside the incident as a non-event.

“To begin with, it was an administration that had done its job and neither the party nor the government had anything to do with it,” IK Jadeja, Gujarat BJP V-P and its official spokesman, said on the detention of Kejriwal, who is currently on a fact-finding tour of Gujarat. On Wednesday, when Kejriwal was interacting with residents of Radhanpur in Patan district, police interrupted the AAP leader and detained him for half an hour for allegedly not having the required permission in the wake of the model code of conduct kicking in on Wednesday morning.

In the evening, when Kejriwal was going to Bhuj, his car was attacked by a few protesters. AAP has no foothold in Gujarat and “this is the least of our worries,” Jadeja said Thursday, avoiding further question on the fledging party that is trying to repeat its impressive debut in December’s Delhi assembly elections elsewhere in the country as well.

About 25 teams of AAP’s most efficient volunteers along with senior leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh are working on getting people’s feedback on the ‘Gujarat Model’. Senior AAP leaders, who spoke to ET said they don’t expect any big show from the party in Gujarat. “What plank are these elections being fought on by the BJP? It's only the Gujarat Model. So does it not make sense to study this model and go back to the rest of the country to tell them what we really found out about this model?” Kejriwal told ET.