Will visit Gujarat to see claims of development made by Narendra Modi, says Arvind Kejriwal

Kanpur: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal today said he will visit Gujarat next week to see the claims of development made by state Chief Minister and BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

"I will visit Gujarat from March 5 to 8 to see the development claimed there," the 45-year-old leader said while addressing a rally at Kanpur's Ram Lila Ground on the day the politically-significant Uttar Pradesh, with its 80 Lok Sabha seats, witnessed three big rallies in as many cities. (Highlights of Arvind Kejriwal's speech)

Barely 200 km away, Mr Modi addressed a rally in Lucknow while the ruling Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav was in Allahabad on what was a Sunday of big rallies ahead of national elections, due by May. (150 riots in UP in one year, none in Gujarat in 10 years: Narendra Modi)

At Kanpur, the former Delhi Chief Minister dismissed the 'Modi wave', calling it a "creation of media." "When we left Delhi, we heard of a Modi wave. I said, let's see. And we've met hundreds of people, there is no such thing. The Modi wave is a creation of the media, it's a wave on TV," Mr Kejriwal said.

Mr Kejriwal used a good part of his 35-minute speech to launch a blistering attack on the BJP, calling it a party that poisons people's minds by using religion for electoral advantages.

"My grandmother said that her Ram cannot demolish a mosque to live in it," the 45-year-old leader said, alluding to the demolition of Babri mosque in Ayodhya in 1992 during the controversial Ram temple movement that catapulted the BJP from the margins to India's second largest political party in the 1990s.

The AAP chief did not spare the Congress either, accusing it of being pro-corporate like the BJP. "Only one party is capable of giving you a clean government," Mr Kejriwal said, claiming that AAP will win 100 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.

AAP, riding high on its spectacular debut in Delhi polls last year, has decided to fight in more than 300 seats across India. Mr Kejriwal's Kanpur rally was part of a three-day roadshow in Uttar Pradesh. Tomorrow, the road rally will head to Delhi covering Auraiya, Etawah, Firozabad, Agra, Mathura and Palwal.