On Arvind Kejriwal's Lok Sabha Poll Prediction, Himanta Sarma's "Memory Loss" Retort

Hitting back at Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar for his remarks regarding Pakistan possessing nuclear weapons, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took a dig at Pakistan's economic situation and said that India's neighbour doesn't even have money to pay salaries and nobody is sure if their atom bomb will work.

Earlier, on Friday, veteran leader Mr Aiyar found himself in the soup again after a clip of an old interview surfaced in which he is heard saying that Pakistan, as a nuclear-armed country, deserves respect. He also advocated the need for India to reengage with its neighbour.

Responding to his statements, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma while speaking to ANI said, "Mani Shankar Aiyar has said that Pakistan has an atom bomb, but how will you believe it? As the country does not have money to pay salaries, buy petrol, buy food grains. Pakistan may have had an atom bomb at one time, but it may not have been maintained, so who knows whether the bomb will work now or not?" he said.

Himanta Biswa Sarma rebuked Mr Kejriwal's assertion of BJP winning 220 seats in the Lok Sabha elections and said that Mr Kejriwal must have lost his memory in jail.

"We are confident that we are going to get 400 (seats). Mr Kejriwal ji was in jail for 52 days and dreaded criminals stay in Tihar. He is not the same Kejriwal. He forgot what he did to Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, Kumar Vishwas. He forgot how he betrayed Anna Hazare. Memory loss is a common symptom after being in jail for 2 months."

He reiterated BJP's stance of winning 400 plus seats.

Arvind Kejriwal, on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), asserting that they won't secure more than 230 seats in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

Addressing supporters at the Aam Aadmi Party's headquarters in Delhi, Kejriwal, who was recently released on interim bail, also expressed confidence in the opposition INDIA bloc winning the elections and claimed that AAP would be part of the next government at the Centre.

"In the last 20 hours after release from jail, I talked to poll experts and people, and got to know the BJP is not going to form the government," Mr Kejriwal said.

Arvind Kejriwal received a big relief from the Supreme Court, which on Friday granted him interim bail till June 1 in the excise policy case.

He spent over 50 days in Tihar Jail after being arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in connection with the alleged money laundering case linked with Delhi excise policy on March 21, days after the election schedule for the general elections was announced.

The bail is applicable until June 1 and Kejriwal has to surrender to authorities on June 2. The Delhi CM can participate in the poll campaigning but cannot attend his office as Chief Minister.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)