New Delhi, Feb 12: India is gifting 2,000 metric tonnes of rice to Syria following a request from the Arab republic, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday.

The first consignment of 1,000 metric tonnes of rice was handed over by Indian ambassador to Syria Hifzur Rahman to Syrian Minister of Local Administration Hussain Makhlouf at Latakia Port on Thursday, the MEA said in a statement.

The MEA said the remaining 1000 metric tonnes of rice is expected to reach Syria on February 18.

"In response to a request from the government of the Syrian Arab Republic for emergency humanitarian assistance, the government of India is gifting 2000 MT of rice to strengthen food security in Syria," the MEA said.

It said India has always stood in solidarity with the people of Syria, and its bilateral engagement has continued apace even during the years of internal conflict in that country.

India had earlier gifted 10 metric tonnes of medicines to Syria in July last year as part of COVID-19 assistance, the MEA said.

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Lucknow (PTI): AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said the BJP wants to get more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha polls as it wants to end reservation.

Kejriwal also reiterated his claim that Home Minister Amit Shah will be made the next prime minister and Yogi Adiyanath will be removed as Uttar Pradesh chief minister if the BJP returns to power.

"The people of BJP have always been against reservation. They will change the Constitution and end reservation of SC/ST/OBC after coming to power," he said at a joint press conference along with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav here.

Kejriwal claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made a rule that anyone over 75 years of age will not be given any post in the government and the organisation and will be retired.

L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were retired as per this rule and several BJP leaders, as per this rule, were removed or not given ticket.

"PM Modi is going to cross the age of 75 next year and has decided to make Amit Shah the prime minister of the country," Kejriwal said.

He claimed that Modi has been working to ensure the same.

The leaders who could have caused an hindrance were sidelined. Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Vasundhra Raje, Raman Singh, Devendra Fadnvis and Manohar Lal Khattar have been finished, he asserted.

Kejriwal said Adityanath will be removed as Uttar Pradesh chief minister if the BJP again comes to power.

"There is only one person who could prove to be a thorn in the way of Amit Shah and that is Adityanath. They have now decided to remove Yogi Adityanath within two months if their government is formed," Kejriwal said.

"They say the BJP is going to do something big after coming to power. The big thing they want to do is to end reservation. We know their ecosystem -- RSS, BJP -- has been against reservation. I want to alert that they want more than 400 seats because they want to destroy the reservation made by B R Ambedkar," he claimed.

Kejriwal said trends coming from across the country show that the BJP is getting less than 220 seats. The seats of BJP in Haryana, Delhi, Karanataka, UP, Maharastra, West Bengal, Bihar and Jahrkhand are reducing and the party is not winning a single seat in Punjab, he claimed.

The SP chief claimed that BJP will win only 143 of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats.

"The BJP has been defeated in the first four phases. It was giving the slogan of wining 400 seats but is winning only 143 of the total 543 seats," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.