NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was back in election mode but this time, he asked for votes for his counterpart in Bihar, Nitish Kumar . The two CMs shared a stage for the first time on Wednesday where Kejriwal asked Delhi’s Purvanchalis to ensure their relatives back in Bihar voted for the JD(U) alliance.

The show of solidarity came amid indications that Kejriwal might campaign for Nitish in the Bihar elections, a venture which will see him doing a political trapeze as the AAP leader will also like to keep a distance from the Bihar CM’s alliance partners, Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Congress.

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The two came with a common agenda for Delhi and Bihar, giving out a slogan, “Poorna rajya ka darja Dilli ke liye aur vishesh rajya ka darja Bihar ke liye (full statehood for Delhi and special status for Bihar)”. Both targeted the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre with Kejriwal saying BJP was replicating its practice of negative politics in Bihar because of which it lost the Delhi elections earlier this year.

Nitish, who was in the Capital especially to attend Delhi government ’s Bihar Samman Samaroh, also extended open support to Delhi in its demand for full statehood, saying that like Kejriwal, he was not a politician who would be satisfied with just the ‘kursi’ (seat of power) and wanted the power to do work. “Some people can get away by just talking,” he said, referring to Modi. He invited Kejriwal to address a programme on public delivery systems in Bihar which the Delhi CM has accepted.

Where Nitish is hoping to cash in on Kejriwal’s popularity among the youth and in urban centres, for AAP, organizing the event in Delhi has signaled its opening up to national politics. Party insiders said AAP has sent out a message that it is looking for issue-based alliances.

“Looking at it practically, the AAP government in Delhi is just six months old and hence not in need of a political alliance for electoral purposes. But by reaching out to Nitish through an event like this, Kejriwal further strengthened his base in the Purvanchali population in Delhi, whom he credited for the party’s win, and also sent out a signal to other non-BJP parties and alliances that AAP is ready to partner on issue-based matters,” said a senior party member.

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The Bihar CM lashed out at the PM for questioning the DNA of Bihari people in a recent rally. “The power of Bihari people is such that if all of them in Delhi decide to stop work for a day, the city will come to a standstill. At one end is Delhi government with such a great mandate even when BJP’s supreme leader and country’s PM Modi had said that Delhi’s mood is the mood of the country and vice-versa. The people of Delhi showed their mood and now BJP is trying hard in Bihar. Bihar is the state of Buddha, Chanakya, Chandragupta Maurya, Samrat Ashok. It is Guru Gobind Singh’s birth place and a place of great educational institutes like Nalanda. How dare he question our DNA,” Nitish said.

It was a mutual praise session for Nitish and Kejriwal and they had a common enemy – BJP. First, Nitish criticized the Rs 1.25 lakh crore special package that Modi announced for Bihar, saying it sounded like an auction and then Kejriwal criticized the move, accusing Modi of trying to buy off Bihar.

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“Modiji is adept at making these promises which he never fulfils. Now he has promised Rs 1.25 lakh crore for Bihar but when will the money come, how will it come and is there a budget for it? If the government has so much money then why is the PM shying away from going to Jantar Mantar and approving the one rank, one pension demand,” said Kejriwal.

Kejriwal, who openly canvassed for votes for Nitish, gave the audience two examples and asked it to choose. “On one hand there is Nitish, who responded to our call for honest officers to head our anti-corruption branch within a week. On the other hand, the Centre sent paramilitary forces to capture ACB from us on June 8 and since then, the Delhi CM has had no control over this department. Who is committed to fighting corruption? Give your relatives in Bihar this choice and ask them to vote wisely. When BJP was voted to power in 2014, there was great faith in the party. The youth was hopeful for better education and more employment but all hopes have been shattered by now,” he said.

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