1. Home
  2. 'Arvind Kejriwal to take on Modi in Varanasi'

'Arvind Kejriwal to take on Modi in Varanasi'

March 13, 2014
New Delhi, Mar 13: The AAP has almost decided to pit former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal against Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha polls if the BJP's prime ministerial candidate contests from Varanasi.

ArKe_NaMo

AAP leader and Kejriwal confidant Manish Sisodia, who is the virtual no. 2 in the AAP, also said his party hopes to field 350-400 candidates in the April-May elections and do particularly well in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.

"If Modi contests from Varanasi, then we have almost decided that Arvind Kejriwal will be pitted against him (Modi)," said Sisodia here. Sisodia, who was education minister in the 49-day AAP government in Delhi, hoped Modi will contest one Lok Sabha seat - not two seats -- if he is indeed a mass leader.

"Those who are afraid (of losing) contest from two seats. If he is afraid, he will fight from two seats. Let him decide." There is intense speculation that the Bharatiya Janata Party will field the Gujarat chief minister in the temple town of Varanasi in a bid to generate a pro-BJP wave in Uttar Pradesh.

Pressed to confirm that Kejriwal, 45, will be a candidate in the general election, Sisodia replied: "Personally, I feel he (Kejriwal) should contest."

The AAP, formed in November 2012, has announced 187 candidates for the Lok Sabha battle thus far. It includes a mix of the known and the unknown. Sisodia said the AAP hoped to do well in Karnataka because people there "are as much fed up with the BJP as the Congress".

One of the oldest associates of Kejriwal, Sisodia said he and his colleagues were surprised that social activist Anna Hazare had come out in support of the Trinamool Congress and its leader Mamata Banerjee.

"Annaji used to say that he will never support any political party. I am confused whether Annaji is supporting Mamata Banerjee or the Trinamool. It is fine if Annaji is only supporting a leader, not a party."

Sisodia said people in east Delhi - where he lives - and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh had asked him to contest the election but he said he prefers to campaign for the party.He denied accusations that Kejriwal and the AAP "ran away" over the Jan Lokpal bill instead of governing Delhi .

"The truth is we did not want to form the government. Circumstances forced us to form a government.

"With 28 MLAs (legislators), the government can last only this long. More numbers are needed to run a stable government."

Sisodia underplayed the reported bickering within the AAP over ticket distribution and said the party had fielded more journalists than any other party as "they have a fair idea of what is happening on the ground".

At the same time, he accused sections of the media of unfairly targeting the AAP. "A section of the media is compromised... That are betraying the country. If we do wrong, criticize us. But they are running a smear campaign. Many stories are not based on facts."

Sisodia claimed that the AAP tour of Gujarat this month had helped expose many claims made by Modi on how the state had been developed.

"Our purpose was to get a fair idea about the condition of schools, hospitals, colleges and youths," he said, adding that 26 AAP teams visited all the districts in Gujarat.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
July 24,2020

Lucknow, Jul 24: The Congress in Uttar Pradesh on Friday protested against what it dubbed as deliberate and systematic deletions of chapters dealing in freedom struggle and the party's role in it from the syllabi of Classes 10 and 12 of the Secondary Education Board.

Congress leader Anugrah Narain Singh said: "The deletions effected in Class 12 syllabus clearly has political overtones. Chapters dealing with the freedom movement and the Congress role in it have been cut out. The BJP has no role of its own in the country's history and, therefore, wants that the new generations should not learn about the Congress contribution as well."

A Congress delegation submitted a memorandum to UP Eduction Board Secretary Divya Kant Shukla to demand restoration of the deleted chapters and topics.

BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi accused the opposition Congress of "turning every occasion into a political opportunity during the pandemic".

"The Congress is unnecessarily making an issue out of this. Only some portions have been deleted from the syllabi due to shortening of the academic session due to the nationwide lockdown. People already know about the Congress and the cut in the syllabi is only temporary. The Congress is unnecessarily trying to create a political controversy," she said.

Prof Yogeshwar Tiwari of the History Department in the Allahabad University dubbed the changes made in the syllabi as "unfortunate". "The history is not of the Congress alone -- it is the history of the nation and every student must know about it," he said.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 8,2020

Aurangabad, May 8: At least 15 migrant workers, who were sleeping on the railway tracks while going back to their native places, were run over by a goods train between Maharashtra's Jalna and Aurangabad, officials said on Friday.

A senior railway official confirmed that 15 migrant labourers were run over by a goods train between Jalna and Aurangabad of Nanded Divison of South Central Railway.

The official said that the incident happened around 5.30 am on Friday when the migrant workers, who were on way back to their homes and sleeping on the railway tracks.

However, it is yet not clear from where this group hailed and where they were going.

Amid the nationwide lockdown, thousands of migrant workers stranded in several other cities have started their journey to return to their native places on foot.

The interstate bus service, passenger, mail and express train services have been suspended since March 24.

The railways has started running Shramik Special trains to transport the stranded migrants to their native places since May 1.

Till Thursday railways has run 201 Shramik Special trains.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
August 6,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 6 : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that Congress is known for adopting a soft Hindutva agenda and that there was nothing new in the remarks of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi on Ayodhya temple construction.

"I am not surprised regarding, Priyanka Gandhi's remark on Ayodhya. From Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao, Congress had followed a similar stance. I don't think Congress has any stand when it comes to secularism. 

If it was the case, then our country would not have reached such a level," the chief minister said when asked about the 'Bhumi Pujan' ceremony at the Ram temple in Ayodhya on Wednesday.

"There is nothing new on Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi's position on the issue. They are following the Congress' soft Hindutva agenda. There is no element of surprise," Vijayan said.

Further, Vijayan said that CPI(M) Politburo had made clear the party's viewpoint on the Ayodhya temple construction.

"When it comes to Ayodhya issue. I want to ask who had allowed worship there. It was Congress. Who had allowed to lay the idol there? It was Congress. 

Who gave permission to Karseva? It was Congress. Even when it came to demolition of Babri Masjid too who shut their eyes and gave a silent nod for it- wasn't it the Congress regime at the centre? And Muslim League (IUML) was part of it. These are all part of our history," said Kerala Chief Minister.

He said instead of involving in discussions on it, more time should be utilised towards containing the COVID-19 spread in the country and helping the poor who are suffering due to the pandemic.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.