Kejriwal elected national convenor of his party

Denied police permission to march to Rajghat on Muharram, Arvind Kejriwal instead held his youth rally near the venue on Sunday. Taking a leaf out of his now estranged 'guru' Anna Hazare's book, Kejriwal announced a plan to tour the country to garner votes for his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that is to be formally launched on Monday.

He invited his audience to Jantar Mantar for the launch function where all new members are to be treated as founding members but urged only those people to join the party who can give their full time service to the party. He accused both the Congress and the BJP of using people to get votes.

"These people looted India. Now the youth have decided to come out and drive them out of Parliament. I ask all youth therefore to come to Jantar Mantar and they will be given the status of founder member of the party," Kejriwal said.

He added that he would go to every village and town in the country for the next one year trying to convince people against the "vote bank policy of the Congress and BJP".

Later in the evening the party's National Council met to elect its office-bearers. Arvind Kejriwal was elected as the National Convenor, Pankaj Gupta was elected national secretary while Krishna Kant will be its treasurer. All the three were elected unanimously by the 23-member National Executive Committee.

"These people have been authorised by the Executive Committee to take appropriate measures to approach the Election Commission for registration. We have also taken steps to open bank accounts and receive donations," said lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

The National Executive will again meet on Tuesday and Wednesday, while the party launch function will be held on Monday.

Before the programme, Kejriwal and his aides will go to Raj Ghat and Ambedkar Bhawan in Civil Lines as mark of respect to B R Ambedkar who drafted the Constitution. Tomorrow is Constitution Day.

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