BJP dares Arvind Kejriwal to contest against PM Modi from Varanasi again

Khurana was taking exception to an AAP tweet stating that the Prime Minister was afraid of the Delhi CM’s growing popularity.

“This is the language that AAP and Arvind Kejriwal’s operatives use,” Khurana said, quoting the AAP tweet that said “Kejriwal ki badti lokpriyata se dara Modi”, questioning the Centre’s appointment of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) chairperson late on Wednesday evening.

While Khurana’s comment was in line with several statements that the BJP’s Delhi leadership has recently made questioning, and seeking to dent, attempts to forge a united Opposition front against the BJP, Congress leaders from the city have sought to underline that Friday’s meeting is “beyond local political considerations”.

The AAP, a day earlier, had alleged that a deal had been struck between the BJP and Congress as per which the latter would stage a walkout from the Rajya Sabha when it put to vote the ordinance that gives overarching powers to the Delhi lieutenant governor over the elected government, putting bureaucrats over ministers.

Responding to questions on whether her party’s leaders would pull out from the Opposition meeting in Patna Friday, AAP national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar had said, “I have no information about this. Our top leaders will attend the meeting and it will be their decision. But reliable sources have told us that there is an agreement between the BJP and the Congress and when this unconstitutional ordinance will be presented in the Rajya Sabha, the Congress will walk out.”

“I do not understand why Congress is taking so long to take a stand on an ordinance which is clearly unconstitutional. They have to make their stand clear,” she had added.

Responding to Kakkar, a senior Delhi Congress leader accused the AAP of “peddling propaganda” regarding the Opposition meeting.

“The AAP needs to understand that the meeting is in regards to the larger question of the Lok Sabha elections and not just a platform for them to misuse for their selfish politics,” the leader said.

“As far as being in cahoots is concerned, it is the AAP which is mixed up with the BJP since it has always evidently supported the BJP’s agenda when it has come to crucial junctures,” the leader added.