Prioritise garbage collection, Kejriwal directs councillors

New Delhi: With the Delhi assembly polls only a few months away, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday asked his party's municipal councillors to prioritise garbage collection and cleanliness of the city.
Addressing a gathering of the party councillors at Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Kejriwal said he was confident of AAP winning the Delhi elections with a record mandate if they maintained cleanliness in their respective wards.
"In this election, you will play a key role. We are in MCD and the public expects us to keep the city clean. In your respective areas, make rounds to ensure daily garbage collection and cleaning," Kejriwal told the councillors. "If we can accomplish this much, I am hopeful we will win the elections. Our only target should be to win and we all need to work together."
The AAP convener also cautioned the councillors against being "overconfident" and stressed the importance of taking every election seriously.
With the assembly polls due in Feb, party sources said several councillors had expressed interest in contesting it, leading to a situation of conflict with the sitting legislators. Many AAP councillors also defected and joined BJP in the past few months.
Kejriwal said nobody should take the Delhi elections lightly. He added that Tuesday's results showed that one should not be overconfident. "Every election is difficult and challenging. We need to focus on the polls and work hard together."
He encouraged the councillors to resist the opposition's tactics aimed at dividing the party and urged them to stay motivated despite the challenges posed by the arrests of several functionaries. "I used to read about the struggles and challenges you faced in the newspapers while I was in jail. The past two years have been an extremely difficult phase for AAP. The attacks against us have been unprecedented. At least in the politics of the national capital, I can't remember a time when a govt attacked a party to the extent of arresting all its ministers, including myself," said Kejriwal, advising the councillors to exercise "patience". "I thank you all for enduring this difficult time."
In an attack on PM Narendra Modi, Kejriwal asserted that with God's support, AAP had thwarted BJP's attempts to weaken the party in both Delhi and Punjab.
"I always say this. Modiji is extremely powerful and has a lot of money, but he is not God... Ultimately, God will prevail and he is on our side. This is a fight between him and God," said Kejriwal. "Modiji managed to get me arrested, but neither did Delhi govt collapse nor did our MLAs defect. The same happened in Punjab."