Chaos, vandalism greet Arvind Kejriwal during his Mumbai campaign stint

MUMBAI: Aam Aadmi leader Arvind Kejriwal’s Maharashtra tour began with a road show in Mumbai on Wednesday, generating excitement, chaos and causing sufficient inconvenience to the common Mumbaikar.

The AAP leader, whose party made a sensational debut in last December’s Delhi assembly polls, landed at the Mumbai airport and hailed an auto rickshaw to Andheri station. From there he boarded a suburban train to Churchgate, surrounded by his supporters and a curious media in tow. Regular commuters, at the peak hour, had a tough time negotiating Kejriwal’s supporters.

At the Churchgate station AAP supporters brought down metal detectors, creating commotion and chaos. When Kejriwal took to the streets for a road show from August Kranti Maidan near Grant Road station to Khilafat House near Byculla, traffic was thrown out of gear.

Almost all political parties in the city criticised AAP for the mess it created. Congress MP Milind Deora from the South Mumbai constituency, who is battling Arvind Sawant of the Shiv Sena and Meera Sanyal of the AAP, compared AAP’s antics with vandalism associated with Shiv Sena and MNS.

“I don’t think Mumbai needs another Shiv Sena or MNS; they only believe in creating chaos. It’s unfortunate whatever has happened today, people won’t tolerate this beyond a point,” said Deora.

The Shiv Sena also attacked AAP for Wednesday’s disturbance. “Is this how a party that claims to imbibe Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals behave? Is breaking public property like metal detectors in stations in the public interest,” asked Prem Shukla, Executive Editor of Shiv Sena mouth piece, Dopahar ka Saamna.

Kejriwal’s two-day trip to Mumbai and other parts of the state is considered important as the party is aiming to cut into the Muslim vote-bank of Congress.

At the Khilafat House in August Kranti Maidan, Kejriwal spoke on how BJP and Congress were playing politics over the Hindu and Muslim vote-bank. “BJP hasn’t done anything for Hindus, and Congress hasn’t done anything for Muslims.” said Kejriwal.