Not going to RS: Arvind Kejriwal after AAP MP Sanjeev Arora wins Ludhiana West Assembly bypoll
New Delhi, Jun 23 (PTI): Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said he would not go to the Rajya Sabha after the party's sitting Upper House member Sanjeev Arora won the Ludhiana West bypolls in Punjab.
Arora will have to resign from the Rajya Sabha. During the campaign, Kejriwal announced that Arora would be inducted into the Cabinet of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann if he won the bypoll.
At a press conference on Monday, Kejriwal was asked whom the party will nominate in Arora's place. In a lighter vein, he replied, "Many times I have been sent to the Rajya Sabha."
The AAP chief said the party's political affairs committee would decide whom to nominate but he is not going to the Upper House.
After Arora's name was announced as the AAP candidate for the Ludhiana West bypoll, the opposition had been claiming that Kejriwal would enter the Rajya Sabha in Arora's place.
The names of senior leaders of the party -- Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain -- are doing the rounds as probable candidates for Arora's replacement.
Sisodia was made the in-charge of Punjab in place of Jarnail Singh after the Delhi poll debacle while Jain was named as co-incharge of the state. The former Delhi deputy chief minister and Jain are trusted lieutenants of Kejriwal who have stood with him through thick and thin.
Sisodia has been spending most of his time in Punjab. He is likely to lead a victory march in Ludhiana West on Tuesday along with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
However, a party functionary remarked it was too early to say that Sisodia would be the party's pick for the Upper House.
"The party is currently focussing on bringing reforms in the state. Education is one of the key areas where the party wants to work. We do not know when the Rajya Sabha polls will be held. It is too early to decide on any name," said the functionary.
Another functionary said the party could also nominate a Punjab leader to the Rajya Sabha.
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FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
