Arvind Kejriwal launches party for swaraj, and he will fight for it

After months of speculation, former Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal stepped into politics by announcing the creation of his political party on Tuesday, the birth anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri. Kejriwal did not announce the party’s name, citing legal reasons. The name will be announced on November 26.

At the Constitutional Club in New Delhi, Kejriwal said he would give details of corruption charges against two prominent politicians on Saturday. “Political parties challenged us, saying we should enter politics if we wanted to get the Jan Lokpal Bill passed. We have pleaded enough with political parties. Yachna nahi, ab rann hoga (No more pleading, we will now fight),” Kejriwal said, adding that the corrupt should start counting their days.

“I don’t know whether we will win or lose, but if I do not fight today, my children will accuse me of wasting an opportunity… And I don’t want that,” Kejriwal added. He said his fight was against the political system and not against any individual. 

Kejriwal’s team released a draft of their vision document based on 20,000 responses it received. Some of the features of the vision document include swaraj, fighting corruption, tackling inflation and land acquisition, right to reject and recall among others.

A maulana spoke against MPs and ministers who gave themselves salary hikes without doing any work. Psephologist Yogendra Yadav, the de facto political guru and strategist for the team, also spoke on why it was necessary for them to enter politics.