File photo of Arvind Kejriwal
, who wanted Varanasi to let him know whether he should take on
Narendra Modi, will have to wait for two days longer than he had anticipated. His rally in the city has been refused permission for the 23rd of this month because of local elections; he has been told he can hold it on March 25 instead.
Mr Kejriwal, the 45-year-old chief of the Aam Aadmi Party, had said that he would ask Varanasi to decide for him on whether he should stand against Mr Modi, who was announced over the weekend as the BJP's candidate from the city. Mr Kejriwal did not indicate the mechanism that his referendum would employ. (
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Mr Modi, 64, may also run for Parliament from his home state of Gujarat. A decision by the BJP is expected soon.
For weeks, the BJP prevaricated over whether to allocate Varanasi to its prime ministerial candidate because of blowback from Muril Manohar Joshi, its 80-year-old leader who currently represents Varanasi in the Lok Sabha. He has now been announced as the
candidate from Kanpur.
Mr Kejriwal led the Aam Aadmi Party to an improbably large result in the Delhi state elections in December, but he resigned as Chief Minister after 49 days.
Earlier this month, he conducted a controversial tour of Gujarat; he said he wanted to audit the development of the state the BJP routinely invoke to illustrate Mr Modi's competence in his four terms as chief minister.
Unsurprisingly, Mr Kejriwal said the claims didn't check out and that the super-state that Mr Modi claims to have created exists only for the wealthy and industrialists.