The Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday invited one-year-old Avyaan Tomar, who had dressed up as party national convener Arvind Kejriwal, on the result day of the Delhi Assembly election, to the oath-taking ceremony on Sunday.
The Hindu had reported that Avyaan and his family left the party headquarters on Tuesday after failing to meet Mr. Kejriwal after hours of waiting. Avyaan was dubbed as “baby muffler man”, “chhota Kejriwal” and “baby Kejriwal” after photos of him sporting a black muffler, an AAP topi, a moustache and a pair of spectacles went viral.
“Big Announcement: Baby Mufflerman is invited to the swearing in ceremony of @ArvindKejriwal on 16th Feb. Suit up Junior! [sic]” AAP tweeted along with a photo of Avyaan. Interestingly, the Tomars had dressed up their elder daughter as “little Kejriwal” when Mr. Kejriwal won the election in 2015.
Message on social media
“Today, they messaged my wife in social media whether we will be able to come for the event. Once we confirmed, they made the invitation public. We would have gone even without the invitation,” Avyaan’s father Rahul Tomar said.
When asked about the idea behind dressing up his children as Mr. Kejriwal, Mr. Tomar had said, “When they understand that their parents have a role model, then they will also be interested in it from an early age.”
On Tuesday, the Tomars left their house in Mayur Vihar around 5 a.m. for the Chief Minister’s residence in Civil Lines. From there, they reached the party headquarters at ITO at 10 a.m. and stayed till around 5 p.m. Avyaan was the centre of attraction at the headquarters, with many queuing up to click selfies. However, by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Avyaan got tired and started crying. “The guards had told us that ‘Sir [CM] wants to meet him’ and we were waiting for it. My son is very tired now,” his mother had said. By 4.50 p.m., after failed attempts to meet Mr. Kejriwal, the family left the party office.