The AAP got support from unexpected quarters on the eve of the Delhi Assembly elections.
After the Janata Dal (United) and the Left parties, it was the turn of the Trinamool Congress to offer support to the party. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday urged the people of Delhi to vote for the AAP. “My request to all of you in Delhi to please vote for AAP,” she tweeted. “For the greater need of the country and development in Delhi.”
Mamata had sought the support of anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Senior BJP leader and Patna Sahib MP Shatrughan Sinha, meanwhile, shocked party colleagues by praising the AAP’s CM candidate Arvind Kejriwal, calling him a man with a good image. Sinha said the power of Kejriwal is visible on the gound. “Yesterday, somebody asked me whether one can see the influence of Kejriwal or AAP... Obviously, the power (of Kejriwal) is evident, which is why you are asking me the question,” he said.
He was quick to add that the BJP’s CM candidate Kiran Bedi also has a clean image. But embarrassing his party, he said Union Minister Harsh Vardhan would have been a better CM candidate. “Harsh Vardhan would have been a better choice for Delhi CM candidate,” he said.
“Bedi has a clean image, a good person, she has been a good official and she had a grasp on the administration while, on the other side, Kejriwal, whose own image has been good... he too is a decent and good person,” he added.
The BJP, however, downplayed Sinha’s statement. Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said he has not heard it.