come election season and the ubiquitous rickshaws that have long been this citys lifeline double as tools for political canvassing such is the influence the rickshaw drivers wield on the masses that even parties cannot help but woo this sizeable vote bank remember aap convener arvind kejriwal accepting dinner invitations from rickshaw drivers in ludhiana and ahmedabad this time however the fraternity has launched their own party jan sewa driver party and aspires to be at the wheels of governance because they feel that issues concerning them have been consistently overlookedthe partys national president praveen tiwari feels that political parties do not factor them in when it comes to leadership and do not treat them with dignity we formed the party to represent all drivers not only auto drivers we will field candidates in the gujarat election we appeal to thedrivers to vote for their own dignity and rights tiwari told toitiwaris ambition does not look misplaced with an average of 1 73 lakh professional driving licences issued annually in the past two decades in gujarat there are 8 48 lakh autorickshaws 89358 taxis 53117 maxi cabs 68165 buses and 3 93 lakh trailers registered in the state the collapse of the textile mills in the 80s had many retrenched labourers take to driving rickshaws to earn a livelihood resulting in an increase in the numbers rajveer upadhyay the leader of one of the autorickshaw drivers associations of the city said there are nearly 1 5 lakh auto drivers in ahmedabad and more than 9 lakh in the state gujarat has more than 25 lakh drivers of commercial vehicles he saidit may be recalled that two months ago the national convener of the aam aadmi party aap and delhi chief minister arvind kejriwal had accepted an auto drivers dinner invitation during his visit to ahmedabad in an overt gesture to woo the driver community he had even hired a threewheeler to reach vikram dantanis house in ghatlodia a bjp stronghold and have dinner with himhowever the ruling bjp got back at aap within a few days as dantani was seen sporting a saffron scarf and telling mediapersons that he had always been a fan of narendra modi soon the state government also conceded to the pending demands of auto drivers the rules were modified and restrictions on movement of autos beyond their jurisdictions were lifted now auto drivers can move about freely across the statebut jsdp national president tiwari is unhappy with the way drivers are treated by parties they all use us in their campaigns but never give us a place in politics he says