Ahmedabad/Jaipur:
Arvind Kejriwal was today stopped by the Gandhinagar police from driving up to the residence of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, because he did not have an appointment. Mr Kejriwal took umbrage at not being accorded what he called courtesy due a former chief minister and said, "I am not a terrorist." (
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The cops had stopped Mr Kejriwal, who heads the Aam Aadmi Party, some distance away from Mr Modi's home. He waited for almost an hour in his car as his close aide Manish Sisodia visited Mr Modi's office to seek an appointment.
Mr Sisodia, a former Delhi minister, was told that Mr Modi had a packed schedule that made meeting them impossible today.
"Now I wanted to meet him, but we were stopped five kilometres away from his residence. I am not a terrorist. Being an ex-CM, I deserve a courtesy call from Modi, instead we were stopped. This is not democracy," Mr Kejriwal said in Jaipur, where he was talking to reporters.
Mr Kejriwal has spent the last three days touring Gujarat to audit Mr Modi's governance. This morning he said he would drop in to meet Mr Modi, who is also the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, with a list of 16 questions that challenge his claims of the hyper-development of Gujarat on his watch.
He justified his attempt for an unscheduled meeting saying, "What recourse do I have? They don't answer questions, they don't reply to letters."
"AAP's Politics now includes the right to gate crash, the right to a violent protest and the right to take liberties with the truth," tweeted BJP leader Arun Jaitley.
Mr Kejriwal's road-show in Gujarat has been steeped in controversy. The Election Commission says he violated the code of conduct by not seeking prior police permission for his procession through the state; his car and that of Mr Sisodia were attacked; his brief detention at a police station resulted in street battles between workers of his party and the BJP in Delhi and Lucknow.
AAP says that if Mr Modi runs for Parliament from anywhere outside Gujarat, Mr Kejriwal is likely to stand against him.