Opposition space: AAP seeks to consolidate position in Gujarat

AHMEDABAD: Having tasted electoral success in the state in the recently held local body elections, the AAP is looking to consolidate itself in the opposition space in Gujarat.
Apart from holding ‘Jan Samvedna Yatras’ across Gujarat, the AAP plans a series of nine-day protests as a counter to the nine-day celebration marking CM Vijay Rupani’s five years in office.
The AAP has, in fact, managed to fluster the BJP to some extent with Rupani himself reacting to advertisements published by the AAP on the welfare schemes implemented in Delhi. The Gujarat government wants to highlight its own achievements registered over the past five years.
“People in the opposition and those living in the world of advertisements only talk,” Rupani said at an event of an education sector organization last week. “But you must listen to the reality that in the last five years, more than three lakh students have left private schools to take admission in government schools.” Rupani added: “It means the quality of our schools is improving. We are not doing publicity, but solid work.” His statement was an apparent dig at the AAP, which had criticized the Gujarat dispensation over the condition of government schools.
The AAP protest grew shrill last week, as its state president Gopal Italia was arrested in Mehsana for disobeying a government notification, as he was about to begin the second phase of the Jan Samvedna Yatras. “You have adequate personnel to arrest me, but when it comes to common people, you have no resources to ensure their safety,” Italia said after his release last Friday. “Do what is needed, instead of wasting your time arresting me. If this continues, you will be thrown out of power in 2022.”