New Delhi: Congress's North East Delhi candidate Kanhaiya Kumar on Wednesday met Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's wife Sunita at her residence to extend his support to the alliance's fight to "save Constitution and democracy."
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Kumar said, "We are fighting against the dictatorship that is prevailing in the country. We will together save democracy and Constitution." Kanhaiya was asked whether there was discussion during the meeting about joint campaigning of AAP and Congress.
He responded, "We are not only fighting on seats in Delhi but the INDIA bloc parties are fighting on all 543 seats. We are united. Whatever strategy is formed, it will not be for one party or one candidate. It will be for the people of Delhi. It is not a question of making someone a prime minister, an MP or forming the government of one party."
He asserted that the elections are a "fight for the self-respect" of the people of Delhi. "Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was put in jail. The rights of people of Delhi were snatched by bringing an ordinance to overturn the Supreme Court judgement. The people of Delhi were humiliated," he said. Asked about the impact of the resignation of Arvinder Singh Lovely from the post of Delhi Congress chief and his criticism of his candidature, Kanhaiya said such things happen during elections.
"You saw what happened in Surat and Indore. You are lucky that your candidates are standing strong and you have a chance to cast your vote. There is a need to think about it. During elections, it is not a new thing that some people from a party resign or there are issues with the candidate," he said. In his resignation letter sent to the Congress president on Saturday, Lovely had said that he found himself "handicapped" as all the decisions taken by senior Delhi unit leaders unanimously were "unilaterally vetoed" by the AICC's Delhi in-charge Deepak Babaria.
The Delhi Congress unit was against the alliance with the AAP but the party high command went ahead with it, Lovely had said, as his resignation brought to the fore the party's factional feud. He had also criticised Kanhaiya and Udit Raj Congress candidate from North West Delhi -- for their past statements and termed them "strangers" to the party.
AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak said instances of opposition candidates remind him of 80s Hindi films. "We are seeing that the nomination of opposition candidates are cancelled or they are picked up. We used to see such things in Amitabh Bachchan's and Mithun's films of the 70-80 era," he said.
Pathak said there was no talk about coordination between the two arties and a separate meeting will be held over it. "The AAP and Congress booth level workers will work together to see how we can ensure victory at every booth, lane and mohalla," he added. Former JNU Students' Union president Kumar was lodged in Tihar in 2016 on sedition charges. He was arrested on February 12, 2016 by Delhi Police in connection with an event in JNU where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.
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