NEW DELHI: AAP 's first attempt to retest political waters in the capital received a tepid response from one of its staunch supporters in the city—autorickshaw drivers. Just a few thousand drivers turned up for Thursday's autorickshaw mahasabha at Ramlila Maidan, unlike its previous rally at Burari earlier this year.

Though the mahasabha was to start at 11am, till 12.30pm the makeshift pandal at Ramlila was half empty. According to police, around 5,000 people attended the rally. They had to wait for two hours in the humid weather as Arvind Kejriwal , who is down with fever, came late. Several other prominent AAP leaders like Manish Sisodia, Ashutosh, Gopal Rai, Sanjay Singh and Saurabh Bhardwaj also attended the rally.

"We were expecting a large crowd like we had in Burari earlier this year," said M S Mansoori, general secretary , Rashtriya Rajdhani Kshetra Auto Taxi Chalak Union, Delhi. "Their decision to quit government has shaken people's faith. They could have done a lot for us had they stayed in power," he said.

Although Mansoori claim- ed that the event was organized by AAP, party members maintained that auto unions arranged it, and they only assisted them in its organization. However, they tried hard to explain the low turnout. They alleged that hundreds of auto drivers were stopped by police in areas like Chhattarpur, Burari and Seelampur.

Dismissing the turnout comparison, AAP members said the Burari rally was the first event where a chief minister addressed auto drivers and several important announcements were made that day. "Arrangements were made for 5,000 people on Thursday and we had to request police to extend the rally area by 50 metres once Kejriwal started speaking. This was a show of unity while the Burari meeting was a government function. It is not fair to compare the two," claimed an AAP leader.

The low turnout, political analysts say, may be indicating AAP's diminishing support base among auto unions as other parties, especially BJP, are trying to woo them as well. Recently, Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, a BJP-affiliated auto union, had called a bandh to protest against police atrocities.

With Delhi likely to go for the assembly polls in a few months, AAP convener Kejriwal attacked the BJP-led central government and lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung for sitting on proposals which will end auto drivers' harassment at the hands of police and transport officials.

"During our 49-day stint, we had made several proposals, including one to remove autos from the list of vehicles issued challans under Section 66/192 of Motor Vehicles Act. But these proposals are pending before LG . If the BJP government is serious about giving relief to people, they should get these proposals cleared," said the former Delhi chief minister, promising to take up their cause again if voted back to power.

In the 25-minute speech, he also attacked the Centre for its inability to handle various issues like the UPSC controversy, its failure to control corruption and BJP's nervous- ness to face elections in Delhi. "Why does the BJP government need a week to take a decision on the USPC row? They want to deprive your (auto drivers') children from becoming civil servants," said Kejriwal.

AAP leaders, however, evaded the issue of battery-operated rickshaws. "All rules and regulations are for autos while e-rickshaws are having a free run. We hope that AAP will take it up with LG," said Ved Prakash, an auto driver.

After the low turnout on Thursday, AAP now faces the challenge of making its Sunday rally at Jantar Mantar a success.

