Will fight till end to stop gas price hike: Kejriwal

Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal today appealed to the people to vote for his party candidates, promising to "fight till our last breath" to stop the gas price hike in Parliament.

Addressing a rally here, Kejriwal said, "If you send us to Parliament, they (BJP and Congress) will not gather the courage and will never dare to increase the gas prices... We will fight till our last breath, we will sacrifice our lives  but won't let the gas prices get quadruple at any cost."

"If you vote for BJP or Congress, then be prepared to face the hike in gas prices, which will also lead to increase in prices of essential commodities... Even vegetable and fruit prices will shoot up," he said in this temple city, where he is pitted against BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi.

The former Delhi Chief Minister said after he wrote a letter to the Election Commission requesting it to stop the implementation of hike in gas prices, the poll panel withheld it for two months till the elections are over.

Referring to Modi's alleged links with industrialists, particularly Gautam Adani, Kejriwal said, "Adani had a business of around Rs 3,000 crore in 2002 when Modi became Chief Minister of Gujarat, but after all these years now the business of Adani Group is Rs 84,000 crore."

Kejriwal alleged that Modi was Adani's friend, and gave away agricultural lands at the rate of Re 1 per square metre to him and Ambanis.

He alleged that "these hoardings of Modi and his choppers rides are in return of his favours" to them. "This is the development model of Gujarat... where farmers and the people suffered but Adani and Ambani benefited," he alleged.

Adani, who had been in the eye of storm in the past few weeks, earlier today rejected such allegations and said he got no special favours from Modi and his group has since 1993 acquired only barren waste land for infrastructure projects.

The AAP chief also claimed that if BJP came to power at the Centre it would bring in FDI in retail sector. 

"BJP says that they are opposed to FDI in retail, but Narendra Modi maintains his silence on this issue. He should clear his stand," Kejriwal said and asked the gathering, "How many of you are in retail business?"

"In a business meet in Delhi, Modi said businessmen of our country should not fear international competition and should be always ready to face it.

"It means if Modi becomes PM then he will bring in FDI in retail and Walmart will grab all businesses of the country's small and big traders," the AAP chief said.

Kejriwal claimed that in Gujarat Walmart opened its first outlet in Anand during Modi's chief ministership.

"...I haven't came here to become an MP but to save this nation for you all... If Congress or BJP comes to power, then these both parties have back door pact and Walmart will enter fully in the country and our retail businesses will be shut and people involve in it will be unemployed," he said.

"In my 49-day government in Delhi, one thing I have learnt that there is no deficiency of funds, the government has enough funds to provide all sorts of benefits to its people," said Kejriwal.

"If the government wishes and has a will then it may even clean the Ganga river, weavers can be given subsidy, electricity rates can be brought down and water can be given for free," he added.