After a hectic and frenzied election campaign, the army of Aam Aadmi Party volunteers is back in Delhi and so are the party leaders. Party convener Arvind Kejriwal, however, chose to leave behind the election buzz and be at a vipassana (meditation) centre at Sohna in Haryana.
This comes after a month of campaigning in Varanasi where he took on the BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and the Congress’ Ajay Rai. The AAP leader returned from Varanasi on May 12 when the voting for the ninth and last phase of the long-drawn election came to a close.
Mr. Kejriwal’s close aide said he will not have access to newspapers, television or any other media and will not be monitoring exit polls or receiving reports from their campaign managers during the period of meditation. This is not the first time that the AAP leader has gone to the retreat. On December 8 last year, a day after the Delhi Assembly poll results were declared, Mr. Kejriwal had left Delhi for vipassana. He came back only after the results were out and his party had performed stupendously.
Party leaders Manish Sisodia, Dilip Pandey and Ashish Talwar are also back in Delhi and are relaxing with their families. “Of course the election was tiring because one has to cover a lot of areas and people, but the sheer energy involved was quite inspiring,” said Dilip K. Pandey.
