En route to oath ceremony, AAP takes the common path

Kejriwal, who led AAP to a spectacular victory in the assembly polls took oath as Delhi's seventh CM on Saturday

It was 10 am, and the Kaushambi Metro station in Ghaziabad district was swarming with people wanting to catch the first glimpse of their chief minister-designate, Arvind Kejriwal, who was taking a ride in the metro on his first day on the job. Kejriwal turned up at around 10.50 am and by then, hundreds of people were swarming the station, leading to a massive chaos at the station.

Arvind Kumar, the station master, who shares his first name with the newest non-neta in town, worked hard to make arrangements and welcomed Kejriwal and his army with bouquets of flowers.

Around 20 CISF officials accompanied with sniffer dogs were deployed at the station to strengthen the security of the most talked-about political leader in the country in recent times.

WIND OF CHANGE

Anand Mahindra@anandmahindra
Many countries still struggle to define democracy.Our remarkable country has voted into power in Delhi a party standing for honesty&humility. So no matter what your political persuasion, you have to admit something transformational is happening today Vijay Mallya@TheVijayMallya
Defining moment in Indian democracy as Kejriwal takes oath as Chief Minister of Delhi.True power of the people manifests itself Kiran Mazumdar Shaw@kiranshaw
@ndtv what a historic day for India: AAP's new breed of political leadership is taking responsibility to cleanse political pollution

Party volunteers assisted the police in managing the huge crowd gathered at the metro station and a human wave virtually engulfed Kejriwal as he arrived at the station.

Soon-to-be ministers Satyendra Jain and Rakhi Birla were among the crush, as people climbed on to the compartment, packed like sardines.

Only a few knew that the two MLAs, wearing the Aam Aadmi party (AAP) cap, would be sworn in as ministers in a few hours. But their anonymity was short-lived as someone in the crowd quickly identified them as members of the AAP.

Jain, who worked as an architect before joining AAP, was overwhelmed with the  response.

“This is huge,” Jain said with a glint in his eyes. He chuckled on hearing about the people’s enthusiasm about attending the oath ceremony.

“People are flocking to the Ram Lila ground in large numbers from my village. At least three buses have come so far to capture the moment,” Jain, who belongs to a small village in Uttar Pradesh, said. The crowd swelled at every passing station.

He won from the Shakurpur Basti assembly seat by a huge margin, but the victory did not come easy. The first to object was his family. However, they rallied behind him after Jain took up the fight on behalf of a four-year-old girl who was raped. Jain was put behind bars on allegations of inciting a mob.

“They are proud of me,” Jain said, before being mobbed by reporters. Birla was absorbed in conversation with commuters. It was much easier to strike up a conversation: she is a fellow journalist.

She was still riding high on the success of their movement, resulting in the birth of a political party and  victory in 28 assembly seats. “I don’t see this as an election. For me, this is a movement...a movement towards change,” she said to one of the commuters.

She tried to convince people that systems can only be changed with the latter's active participation. A passenger was quick to reply: “We have faith in you and we will together change this system.”

After 30 minutes of the journey, the ministers-to-be got down from the metro, only to be mobbed by more supporters.