New Delhi, Aug. 19: Nitish Kumar today shared the stage with Arvind Kejriwal as the two leaders joined hands to attack the Narendra Modi government and promised to support each other with the slogan "full state-hood for Delhi and special state status for Bihar".
Nitish invited Kejriwal to visit Bihar. The Delhi chief minister readily accepted it and went on to attack the Prime Minister for allegedly trying to lure Bihari voters by dangling the carrot of a Rs 1.25 lakh crore special package.
The two leaders met at a "Bihari Samman Samaroh" function organised by the Delhi government, where Nitish was felicitated by Kejriwal along with many other prominent Biharis residing in Delhi.
The event was seen as mutually beneficial to both Nitish and Kejriwal. The Bihar chief minister used it as an opportunity to reach out to Biharis in Delhi. The Delhi chief minister aimed to strengthen his support base among the huge Bihari population in the national capital.
The event witnessed chaos as a very large crowd, much more than the Mavlankar auditorium could accommodate, turned up. This led many angry people who were not allowed inside to shout slogans against the leaders and term the treatment meted out to them as an "insult to Biharis".
Inside, however, the two leaders exhibited bonhomie, holding hands aloft for the cameras to express solidarity. Each thanked the other and then attacked their common enemy: Narendra Modi.
"Despite a mandate of 67 out of 70 seats, the AAP government is not being allowed to work. It is not even being allowed to appoint a chief secretary... Give full state-hood to Delhi and special state status to Bihar," Nitish said.
"The people of Bihar are not so cheap that they will sell their votes for Rs 1.25 lakh crore... Will Modi still give Rs 1.25 lakh crore to the state if he loses Bihar?" Kejriwal said, speaking after Nitish, amid cheering from the crowd.
Kejriwal accepted Nitish's invitation to visit Bihar to address a seminar in Patna on August 30 on the subject "How to provide efficient public delivery system for citizen's empowerment". This would be Kejriwal's first foray in poll-bound Bihar to canvass support for Nitish. Whether he would campaign for the JDU remains unclear as the AAP leadership remains tight-lipped. "Wait and see how things pan out," said a close aide of Kejriwal. AAP leaders are citing the presence of scam-tainted Lalu Prasad and the Congress in the alliance as an irritant. "If he (Kejriwal) campaigns, it would be more a campaign against the BJP than for Nitish," said an AAP leader.
Nitish dwelled on lauding Kejriwal and attacking Modi in his speech. The Bihar chief minister said those who voted for Kejriwal did the right thing and pointed out Biharis' contribution to AAP's stupendous victory.
Nitish went on to charge the Modi government with trying to bribe the people of Bihar by luring voters with a package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore.
"One junior minister at the function (in Ara yesterday) told the crowd that since Modi had given them a package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore, the people of Bihar should give him 10 crore votes. This is a clear case of bribery," Nitish said, and felt "intelligent" Biharis would see through "Modi's jumlas".
