Surrenders his old voter ID card of U.P. and acquires a new one from Sundar Nagri in East Delhi

The Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal has turned Delhiite ahead of his much-anticipated electoral debut opposite Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in the Assembly elections scheduled later this year. The move to change the place of residence was necessitated by the fact that only a person whose name figures in the voters’ list in Delhi can fight the Assembly polls here.

Eager to be technically correct ahead of the polls, Mr. Kejriwal turned Delhiite ahead by getting his voter identity card prepared in the Capital. Mr. Kejriwal has surrendered his old voter ID card and has acquired a new one, which has the venue of his fast against “inflated” power bills in March -- F Block, Sundar Nagri in East Delhi – as the new address. Earlier his residence at Kaushambi in neighbouring Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh was his address in his old voter ID card.

And in another move to signal his entry onto the political scene and that too opposite the Congress Chief Minister, Mr. Kejriwal has also blown his poll trumpet in Ms. Dikshit’s home turf, the New Delhi assembly constituency. He also launched a campaign for creating party volunteers in the area.

As part of the campaign against Ms. Dikshit, Mr. Kejriwal’s party has also started recruiting volunteers in the New Delhi constituency. “The campaign has received overwhelming response with more than 3,000 people joining the Aam Aadmi Party as sthaniya prabharis (local volunteers) in less than two days,” AAP claimed on Sunday.

The local volunteers are expected to “take on the responsibility of 15-20 homes in the vicinity. “Whatever communication the party has to make would be routed to these homes through these prabharis . In other words these volunteers will also act as a bridge between the party and the people,” the AAP statement added.

Last week Mr. Kejriwal applied for a party ticket after expressing his desire to take on Ms. Dikshit on her turf in the New Delhi assembly constituency. In his ticket application form he declared his total assets worth Rs. 71 lakh which includes a plot of land in Indirapuram worth Rs.70 lakh and Rs. 1 lakh in bank.

Mr. Kejriwal is the only one shortlisted candidate of AAP from the New Delhi assembly constituency. According to party sources, one candidate who earlier applied to contest from the same constituency withdrew after Mr. Kejriwal expressed his desire to contest from this area.

As per the details the AAP has uploaded on its website, Mr. Kejriwal also declared a flat worth Rs. 1 crore in Gurgaon and Rs. 1 lakh as bank balance on his wife’s name.

After uploading complete information about Mr. Kejriwal, the party sought comments from the public about his candidature. The move precedes the party’s final decision about choosing the party candidate for the Assembly polls.