Aam Aadmi Party to support anti-BJP candidates in UP bypolls

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been quite keen to join the putative anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) front. It has influential backers, including arch rivals Trinamool Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist). Both have tried to reason with the Congress to allow the AAP to be part of the opposition front meetings. But the Congress — primarily because of the resistance from its Delhi unit and also because it blames the AAP leadership for leading a campaign against the UPA-2 government — has not relented. On Tuesday, the AAP announced that it would support the Rashtriya Lok Dal candidate in the Kairana Lok Sabha by-poll and the Samajwadi Party candidate in Noorpur assembly by-poll on May 28 in Uttar Pradesh. The two candidates are being supported by the entire opposition, including the Congress.

The real B-team?

Bharatiya Janata Party Patna Sahib MP Shatrughan Sinha says he has just identified the party that played the role of BJP's B-team in Karnataka. He tweeted: “Is it true that under my friend Nitish Kumar's subterfuge, JDU played to BJP tune, put up candidates in Karnataka and got 500-1,000 votes in many places? Congress lost over a dozen seats with lesser margin. BJP B-team wasn't JDS! As we say in Bihar, it was its judooah (twin) JDU". JDU leaders shot back questioning Sinha's integrity, one leader even calling him a politician without "political morality". The JDU had contested 28 seats in Karnataka and lost in every seat.

A pat on the back for Delhi Metro

When Union Minister of State for Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri was caught in a massive traffic jam on his way to the airport in Delhi, he did something many of us do regularly — he hopped into a Delhi Metro coach. Impressed by its service, he posted a five-star review on Twitter, along with his photo in the train with some other commuters. “Clean, safe and efficient, we have built a truly world class asset,” he said. Just a few days back, the minister said he had advised the Delhi Metro to offer special or discounted fares for students and senior citizens to offset the burden of the fare hike made last year.