Kejriwal rides auto, train on his Mumbai trip

Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal started his two-day Maharashtra election campaign here Wednesday by taking an autorickshaw from Mumbai airport to go to Andheri station.

Welcomed by a huge crowd of AAP activists, a large media contingent and a significant police presence, the former Delhi chief minister stepped out of the airport and hailed an auto along with two other senior party leaders.

A contingent of police personnel, media persons and party activists chased the celebrity auto over the entire five-km distance till Kejriwal alighted near Andheri station east. Kejriwal passed through AAP leader Mayank Gandhi's constituency on his way to the station. Gandhi is contesting the Lok Sabha polls against Congress MP Gurudas Kamat.

As he alighted, another crowd greeted, cheered and virtually mobbed Kejriwal, who was clad in a skyblue shirt, sleeves partly rolled up, his trademark AAP cap and dark trousers. The autodriver was mobbed by the electronic media for his bytes.

At one point, Kejriwal even climbed briefly on a wall near the station to give his supporters a 'darshan' and then was whisked off by AAP activists inside the railway station.

He climbed the bridge to go to Western Railway Andheri platform No.2 and entered a second class compartment of the suburban train which was as usual full.

Somebody had thoughtfully bought a single ticket for the Andheri-Churchgate commute which Kejriwal completed occupying a window seat, in the 11.26 Andheri-Churchgate regular 'local'.

All through the journey, Kejriwal dodged the media mikes aimed at his face for bytes as AAP volunteers craned their necks to catch his glimpse and police personnel jostled with the commuters to prevent them from getting too close to the leader.

Kejriwal then left to attend a private fund-raising meeting, after which he will start another road show traversing the Mumbai South and Mumbai North East constituencies. AAP candidates Meera Sanyal, a former banker, and activist Medha Patkar are respectively contesting from the two constituencies.

AAP, contesting its first Lok Sabha elections, is looking at Mumbai as a major target after Delhi, where it formed a government for little less than two months with outside support from the Congress.

The party is also targeting the Maharashtra Assembly elections due later this year.

Kejriwal is also scheduled to attend a fund-raising dinner at a luxury hotel in Nagpur tomorrow, where the price tag is reportedly Rs 10,000 per person.