IANS/New Delhi

Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal yesterday vowed to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha election in Varanasi.
“I was reading in some newspapers that it will be a symbolic fight (in Varanasi) and it is Modi who will win,” Kejriwal told a meeting of Muslims from across the country here.
“I want to tell him (Modi) that I am going (to Varanasi) not only to fight but I am going to defeat him,” he said.
Kejriwal said the AAP’s “success story” of Delhi - when the party won 28 of the 70 seats and formed a government that lasted 49 days - would be repeated in the Lok Sabha election.
“In the Delhi (assembly) elections, nobody knew our candidates. But they defeated those who were MLAs for 20 years. I feel this will be repeated in the 2014 general election.”
Kejriwal, who was repeatedly cheered, was addressing a meeting of Muslims attended by over 500 professionals and intellectuals from several places including New Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
There was a roaring approval when the former Delhi chief minister demanded to know who from among the audience would go to Varanasi to support him in the election.
Amid cries of “Inquilab Zindabad”, scores of hands went up.
Kejriwal has said that he will hold a rally in Varanasi to decide if people want him to take on Modi, who the BJP has fielded in the Hindu holy town in Uttar Pradesh.
Kejriwal quoted some people as saying that Modi would provide “stability” if he became the prime minister. But the AAP leader said “stability” was not as important as providing security to citizens.
Meanwhile, the AAP yesterday withdrew the candidature of Mahendra Singh from the North West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency for alleged involvement in criminal cases. Former Delhi minister Rakhi Birla will contest from the seat, a party official said.
There was no official announcement of the decision but a party leader said AAP was unaware of the cases filed against Singh, a social activist.
The AAP source said Singh had agreed to withdraw from the race.
Singh said he had “no complaints with the party decision.”
“I will still be a (party) member and campaign for (the AAP),” he said, adding the party was free to pick the best available candidate.
Birla, a former journalist, was the youngest minister in the 49-day-long AAP government in Delhi.
In other developments, BJP leader Arun Jaitley’s arrival in Amritsar yesterday started literally with a ‘bang’ when gas-filled balloons put up for his welcome caught fire from exploding firecrackers.
Jaitley and other party leaders suffered minor burns as the balloons went off at the Novelty Chowk when his procession reached there.
Jaitley, who replaced Navjot Singh Sidhu as the BJP candidate for the Amritsar Lok Sabha sea, was given a warm welcome by BJP and Akali Dal leaders.
Punjab cabinet ministers Bikram Singh Majithia and Anil Joshi and Punjab BJP president Kamal Sharma accompanied Jaitley in an open truck as he went to the Golden Temple to offer prayers.
Amritsar’s BJP MP and cricketer-turned-politician Sidhu was conspicuous by his absence during Jaitley’s road show.