Varanasi battle to save country, says Kejriwal

Varanasi: AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said that his fight against BJP prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi is not a "battle of prestige" but one to save the country from corrupt forces. Kejriwal said the party's electoral win in Varanasi and Amethi would be "enough to shake up the country" even if the rookie party does not win 100 seats in the Lok Sabha poll.

"Modiji brought me to Varanasi. And this is not a battle of prestige, but one to save the country from corrupt forces like the BJP and the Congress," Kejriwal told IANS after his hectic and back-breaking campaigning in the temple town. In Amethi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded Kumar Vishwas against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi. Asked whether it was purely out of electoral reasons that he decided to contest in Varanasi, Delhi's former chief minister Kejriwal said: "It is not so... Wherever the Aam Aadmi Party enters once, it maintains an everlasting tie with that place and its people."

"We have come to Varanasi and we will never leave it," he adds. Varanasi will go to the polls May 12. The contest between the Gujarat chief minister and Kejriwal is the most keenly-watched contest, in which the former seems to have the upper hand. Both the leaders filed their nomination papers accompanied by large numbers of supporters and their cavalcades. Modi's road show - a day after Kejriwal's - was joined by thousands, sending out a strong signal of his popularity.

Besides Modi, Congress' Ajay Rai is another contender. Asked about the number of seats AAP was hoping to muster in the house of 543, Kejriwal said: "We will get what people will give. I am not worried about the results. "Imagine you seeing news on TV and coming to know that both Modiji and Rahul Gandhiji got defeated.