Amethi people will decide on my candidature: Kumar Vishwas

With the Aam Aadmi Party hinting at a contest between Kumar Vishwas and Rahul Gandhi in 2014 general elections, the AAP leader said it is up to the party and the people of Amethi to take a decision on his candidature from the constituency represented by the Congress vice-president.

"It is up to them to decide but if there is a contest, it will see the rout of the last symbol of dynastic politics," Vishwas said before leaving for Ralegan Siddhi to support Anna Hazare's three-day old indefinite fast to press for passage of Janlokpal bill in Parliament.

Taking a jibe at Gandhi, Vishwas said the people can see "where he (Gandhi) and his brother-in-law have reached and where Amethi has reached."

He said he doesn't have the "capacity" to fight against the "Shehzada", borrowing the term often used by Narendra Modi to taunt Gandhi, and that the decision was up to the party and the people.

"I am son of a school master. If people wish to field me then they themselves will decide. And it is fact that when a fakir (sage) contests, he wins," he said, adding unlike Congress where the decision on a candidate come from 10 Janpath, it is his party's senate that decides.

He said if he wishes to contest an election, then he will have to apply like Arvind Kejriwal.

"If I want a ticket to contest from Amethi, I will have to apply to the party, with signatures from 1,000 people and wait for about a month. And if I get a ticket then I will fight the elections," Vishwas said.

He said that Manish Sisodia had only "expressed his feelings that if Congress thinks that their prince was undefeatable, then the party also has youth icon to contest the elections".

On Wednesday, AAP leader Manish Sisodia, who won from Patparganj assembly constituency, had said that the party would not shy away from fielding candidates against the so-called heavyweights.

"We can even pitch our 'yuva hriday samrat' against the 'yuvraj'," he had said.

Vishwas said if he contests and wins from Amethi, "it will be the victory of the common man".

Image: AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Kumar Vishwas wave to their supporters after an emphatic performance in the Delhi polls

Photograph: Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters