Satwik-Chirag pair exits All England Championships
Birmingham (PTI): World No. 1 Indian pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bowed out in the men's doubles pre-quarterfinals of the All England Badminton Championships after a straight game defeat against Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana of Indonesia here.
Satwik and Chirag on Thursday night lost 16-21 15-21 against the Indonesians, who were champions here in 2022.
The top seeded Indian shuttlers, who had won the French Open last week, could not sustain the pressure on their rivals, the third seeds, and went down in a little over an hour.
Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa also exited in the women's doubles round of 16, after a 21-11 11-21 11-21 defeat against Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu of China.
Later today, India's Lakshya Sen will face Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia, a 2021 champion here, in the men's singles quarterfinals.
Earlier, Sen had recorded a stunning three-game win over world No. 3 Anders Antonsen to progress to the quarterfinals. Sen won 24-22 11-21 21-14.
However, it was curtains for double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu as she slipped to a 19-21 11-21 loss to her nemesis and world No. 1 An Se Young of South Korea.
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Chadha, others wouldn't have left AAP had it followed 'right' path: Anna Hazare
Mumbai (PTI): Social activist Anna Hazare has said Raghav Chadha and six other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha members would not have quit the party had it followed the "right" path.
"Everyone has the right to hold an opinion in a democracy. They (Chadha and others) must have faced some trouble, which is why they left," Hazare told reporters on Friday in Ahilyanagar district of Maharashtra.
AAP Rajya Sabha members Raghav Chadha and Sandeep Pathak addressed a joint press conference in Delhi on Friday, announcing their exit from the Arvind Kejriwal-led party to join the BJP.
Chadha claimed that nearly two-thirds of AAP's Rajya Sabha members had quit the party and would function as a separate faction.
"It is their (AAP leadership’s) fault. Had that party followed the right way, they would not have left," Hazare said.
Hazare reiterated that Chadha and others must have faced difficulties within AAP, and that is why they left. "Had the party gone in the right direction, they would not have quit the party," he added.
"There must be some or the other reason (for their leaving AAP). In a democracy, every person has a view about where to stay and leave," Hazare said.
The Chadha-led exodus marks a significant setback for the Kejriwal-led party since its formation in 2012, which followed the momentum of Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement.
