IIT Kharagpur communities hail Kejriwal online

AAP founder leader Arvind Kejriwal's alma mater Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur might not be indulging in raucous celebrations on-campus at its alumnus's great show in the Delhi assembly polls, but congratulatory messages are flooding online sites.

Party worker and student of the premier institute, Ritesh Singh maintains that such celebratory "show of strength" on the campus is not needed for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Even as congratulatory messages keep on coming for alumnus Kejriwal (1999 batch) and AAP via social media, Singh believes in focusing on the party's next target - the Lok Sabha polls 2014.

"People are celebrating online through various Facebook pages but offline (on the campus itself) there isn't much of a show ... such celebrations which the normal political parties indulge in are for show of strength ... it is not needed for us. We have already proved ourselves at the elections," Singh, a computer science student, told IANS.

The alumni cell, IIT Kharagpur page hails Kejriwal's victory as the "dawn of a new era" while the AAP IIT Kharagpur page is flooded with questions from students eager to join the outfit.

"Initially people were sceptical as many parties who wish to do honest work come and go ... unable to survive. Many wanted the AAP to win despite their scepticism. Now the sceptics are in support of our work. Many of the students are now believers in the party's goals," said Singh, who was actively involved with the Anna Hazare movement in West Bengal.

As for his mandate, Singh said AAP made a conscious decision to stay away from "raking up local issues" in Bengal.

"In a week we will get to know about our national manifesto ... what to do and from which states ... for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Till now the focus was 100 percent on the Delhi elections," said Singh.

Kejriwal, who had earlier received the distinguished alumnus honour from the institute for his social work, has been invited to the 11th Annual Alumni Meet Jan 17-19.

"He has said he will come. The institute will felicitate him for his work, but not for his political achievement. We do not take any political stand," Shreyoshi Ghosh of IIT Kharagpur public relations cell, told IANS.