Gujarat road-show bumpy for Arvind Kejriwal, convoy attacked

Gujarat road-show bumpy for Arvind Kejriwal, convoy attacked

Arvind Kejriwal's car was attacked, the windshield was broken

 

New Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal, whose road-show in Gujarat was briefly interrupted today by government officers, made a public appeal this evening for his supporters from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to stay calm.

"For any role that our workers played in this evening's violence, I offer my apology," he added, hours after AAP members clashed with BJP workers in Delhi and Lucknow in ugly street battles that were broadcast on television.

The violence broke out after AAP workers gathered at BJP offices to protest against their leader's detention this afternoon in the western town of Radhanpur, 170 kms from Ahmedabad. (Blog: On the road in Gujarat with Arvind Kejriwal)

In Delhi, stones were hurled and chairs were flung from within the BJP headquarters. AAP members including senior leaders like Ashutosh were seen scaling the walls of the compound. Several people were injured. (See pics | Read)

Mr Kejriwal has attributed what he describes as his harassment in Gujarat to the orders of
Narendra Modi, the BJP's candidate for prime minister.

The 45-year-old former tax inspector says he is being punished for undertaking a four-day audit of the state Mr Modi has governed since 2001. The BJP and Mr Modi have made the development of Gujarat the centre-piece of his campaign. Mr Kejriwal says he is seeing little evidence of the alleged modernisation.

The officer who says he stopped Mr Kejriwal's tour claims he wanted an explanation for why the politician was conducting a tour without prior police permissions, a requirement of the election code of conduct that has kicked in today with the dates for the national election being announced. (India's mammoth general election: factbox)

HN Thakkar, the collector of Patan, later told NDTV that he had accepted that Mr Kejriwal had not broken any election rules because his convoy consisted largely of media cars and did not amount to a political procession.

AAP has suggested that if Mr Modi decides to run for Parliament from anywhere outside Gujarat, it will field Mr Kejriwal against him.

Opinion polls forecast that under Mr Modi, the BJP will be the largest party but will fall well short of a majority.