Escalating his attack against Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi over his development claims, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said he is the vikas purush (development man) only for industrialists.
"Modi is a vikas purush, but only for the Adanis and Ambanis," Kejriwal, who is in Gujarat to "inspect" the development claims made by Modi, said after meeting farmers in Mundra taluka, where the Adani port and the Special Economic Zone is located.
"Big industries in a nexus with the state government started acquiring land,” he alleged, adding that "it seems that the entire land of Gujarat is on sale."
"Industries have earned so much black money that they will flee to Switzerland any day," he further alleged.
"Through media, he (Modi) conspires a propaganda of development. But have you heard voices of content here? People are only talking about their agony," Kejriwal said.
The former Delhi chief minister also met Sikh farmers earlier and told them, "The Gujarat government does not want to give Sikh farmers their land."
"Gujarat government froze their land in 2010, they have moved court and have hired big lawyers so that Sikh farmers remain deprived of their land," he said.
Prithvi Singh, a farmers' representative, said, "We put our issue before Kejriwal regarding the anti-farmers' policy of the state. He assured us that he will raise our issue, though we know the model code of conduct has come into effect, anyone cannot do anything."
"We have given many representations to the state government but it didn't help us, instead, Modi is fighting till the Supreme Court," Singh said.
"In this political scenario, we have some hope from the AAP and Kejriwal," he added.
Kejriwal also met fishermens' representatives and tried to visit a hospital in Bhuj, but could not reach there due to protests by a mob which was shouting pro-Modi slogans.
On Wednesday, Kejriwal was briefly "detained" in Radhanpur and his car was damaged in an attack by BJP workers in Kutch.
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