Elect a differently-abled person, Kejriwal urges Farrukhabad voters

02 November, 2012

Arvind Kejriwal reached Farrukhabad on Thursday and launched a blistering attack on Union Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid and urged the residents to elect a disabled person and defeat the corrupt politician.

AT A few places, Congress workers waived black flags at Kejriwal's cavalcade en-route Farrukhabad from Lucknow and clashed with IAC activists on the outskirts of Farrukhabad.

Addressing a rally of India Against Corruption activists at the home turf of Salman Khurshid, Kejriwal attacked PM Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for rewarding Khurshid by promoting him in the recent cabinet rig-jig despite the allegations of misappropriation of funds by his Zakir Hussain Trust.

The police was deployed in large number at the rally venue ensured to control plausible clashes the IAC activists and Congress supporters. About 20,000 people had gathered for the rally to listen to Arvind Kejriwal and his colleagues.

A large number of differently-abled persons were also present at the rally. Many of them claimed that they had not been served by the trust in any way though their names were on the list of the beneficiaries.

Kejriwal told the rallists that that he had entered politics to change the system and he was not interested in any important post or power.

He dared the Uttar Pradesh chief minister to arrest Khursheed for the frauds by his trust and Khurshid to fulfill his expresed desire. He said amidst applause that Khurshid had warned against his coming to Farrukhabad and since he was here, let the threat be carried out.

Here is the press release of IAC on Farrukhabad rally on their website:

IAC member Arvind Kejriwal announced that the new party, carved out of the movement led by him among others, would field a physically challenged person from Farrukhabad and ensure that Union Minister Salman Khurshid was defeated in the next Lok Sabha election from that constituency. This would be a befitting reply to Khurshid’s Trust siphoning off money in the name of physically challenged people, he said at a massive rally at the said minister’s constituency.

When the names of listed beneficiaries of the Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust run by the minister and his wife were announced one by one, they came and declared before a packed gathering that, although the names were correct, they did not receive the equipments claimed."

About 20,000 people had gathered for the rally to listen to Arvind Kejriwal and his colleagues. The gathering included physically challenged people from seven districts, namely Farukhabad, Kannauj, Mainpuri, Itawah, Bareili, Allahabad and Gautam Buddh Nagar. Supporters and volunteers of the movement had also converged from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.