Kapil Sibal to contest from Chandni Chowk even if Kejriwal in fray

Mumbai: Amid speculations that AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal could contest against him from his Chandni Chowk constituency, Union Minister Kapil Sibal said on Friday that he will be in the fray from there irrespective of who his opponent is.

"I am going to contest Lok Sabha election from Chandni Chowk, let anybody be in the fray," he told reporters on the sidelines of an event.

Sibal, a staunch critic of the Delhi Chief Minister, however, said he was not averse to subsidies like those effected in the national capital by the Aam Aadmi Party government with regard to power and water tariff.

"See the point is we are in the election mode... and naturally we all look at the aam admi." he said.

"As a govt, we have been doing this all along for the last 10 years for the common man. I think that though any subsidy which has a very negative long term implication for the economy is not something which is welcome but, at the same time, we must realise that there are certain sections of our country who need subsidies and therefore those issues need to be addressed," Sibal said.

The minister said 800 million people in India do not have a very prosperous existence and the government must think of them.

"Therefore, in that context where subsidy is necessary it should be given and where subsidy has long term negative implications on the economy then we should think before giving," he said.

He was asked whether such subsidies would not put further pressure on the fiscal deficit, making the target difficult to achieve.

Taking a jibe at AAP and BJP, Sibal said the Opposition has provided two alternatives--one who wants to run the country from streets and the other who does not have any ideology.

"In this country we are now being provided with two alternatives by the Opposition. One alternative has no ideology whatsoever...they want to govern India from streets."

"The other alternative we don't know what his (BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi's) ideology is because we don't know what his views on healthcare or education is," Sibal said.

On Modi's claim about Gujarat's development model, he said," The reality on the ground is different from what is in cyber space".

He said that though BJP talks about liberalisation, it has opposed many liberal legislations in the Parliament.

"They talk about liberalisation of the economy but they opposed all liberal legislation in the Parliament. So we don't know what BJP stands for...we have no idea."

He described Modi as a good "salesman" who does not know the ground reality.

"He said the other day that I will have one IIT in every state. He says this is a journey from bullets to bullet train. We don't know does he know what the cost of a bullet train is...what one kilometer costs. "He has no idea but he makes the statement.

That's why I call him a 'salesman' because he is selling a product that has been outsourced and he is selling well," Sibal said.