After Himanta Sarma's ‘London-Paris’, ‘invitation’ to Manish Sisodia dig, Arvind Kejriwal responds
Himanta Biswa Sarma and Arvind Kejriwal had been engaging in verbal tussle on Twitter over the last few days, each of them asking the other to visit their state and witness the development work undertaken there.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday engaged in another round of verbal duels on Twitter, with the former claiming that the AAP chief was “comparing the national capital with smaller cities” after failing to fulfil his promise of turning national capital into London or Paris. Kejriwal, however, responded saying Assam will see development like Delhi if the AAP forms a government in the northeastern state.
Sarma and Kejriwal had been engaging in verbal tussle over the last few days, each of them asking the other to visit their state and witness the development work undertaken there. The spat started after Kejriwal, in response to a news item that claimed the Assam government closed 34 schools due to poor results, said shutting down the institutes was no solution.
Sarma, taking a dig at the Delhi CM, also pointed out that his counterpart has "expressed his desire to visit Assam" only now, not when the state going through crises such as floods.
"You came to power with a promise to make Delhi look like London and Paris, don't you remember @ArvindKejriwal ji? When you could not do anything, then you started comparing #Delhi with smaller cities of Assam and Northeast!," Sarma tweeted.
Sarma went on to claim that if the BJP came to power in a city like Delhi, his party will make it the "most prosperous city in the world”.
In another tweet over reports claiming that Kejriwal is willing to visit this northeastern state, the Assam CM wrote, "I am sad and sorry that you didn’t have such a desire when the people of Assam were battling natural calamities like floods!"
"And yes, invitation has already been sent to your deputy chief minister @msisodia ji from Assam," the BJP leader added.
Sarma was apparently making a reference to the summons sent by a local court here to Manish Sisodia, asking him to appear before it on September 29 in a criminal defamation case filed by the Assam chief minister against the Delhi deputy CM.
Later, Sarma told news agency ANI told that he had already invited Sisodia. Arvind Kejriwal should also come if he wants.
“Delhi has been the capital of India since the time of Mughals. He should compare Delhi with New York and Tokyo instead of comparing it with Guwahati and Shillong. I do not have resources as good as Delhi but he runs 1,200 schools and I run 40,000 schools,” ANI quoted the Assam CM as saying.
“Kejriwal ji wanted me to invite him to Assam. I have already invited Manish Sisodia, he must have got a notice from the Court as well. He (Arvind Kejriwal) should also come if he wants,” Sarma added.
Responding to one of Sarma's tweets, the Delhi chief wrote, “Believe me, when ‘AAP’ government is formed in Assam, then there will also be development like Delhi. If corruption is eradicated, there will also be no shortage of resources.”
In March 2017, Kejriwal had promised to transform Delhi into London if his party wins the MCD polls, but he had later clarified that he only meant ‘Delhi would be as clean as London’.
(With inputs from PTI)
