Delhi chief minister and Aam Admi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday praised his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar as a good administrator while participating in a seminar here. He also took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his recent “DNA test” jibe about the people of Bihar and the “special package” announced for Bihar.
In poll-bound Bihar, Mr. Kejriwal sought to appeal to the people of Bihar for Nitish Kumar calling him as a good administrator.
“Nitish Kumar is known for being a good administrator and I’ve also got the opportunity to learn a lot from him”, declared Mr. Kejriwal while addressing select gathering at the completion of the fourth year of the Right to Public Service Act (RTPS) in Bihar.
The seminar was organised by the Bihar Prashashnik Sudhar Mission (Bihar Administrative Reforms Mission).
Several senior bureaucrats and police officials of the state government were present on the occasion.
Earlier, in an apparent bid to woo about 16 lakh Bihari migrants in Delhi in the upcoming Bihar assembly poll, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had visited Delhi to share the dais with Arvind Kejriwal.
It is said that Mr. Kejriwal has good support among the Bihari migrants in Delhi who reportedly had played a significant role in AAP party’s stupendous success in Delhi assembly elections.
While taking a dig at the way PM Modi had recently announced the “special package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore” to Bihar, Mr. Kejriwal said “it was announced as if people of Bihar were being auctioned”.
“It was in bad taste but people of Bihar would respond to it (in the coming poll)”., he said.
He also recalled the DNA test jibe made by the Prime Minister against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. “Bihar has given so much of luminaries in every field and questioning their DNA was not good”, said Mr. Kejriwal.
“People today want positive politics and not the negative politics”, he said while citing example of Delhi election in which his party had got 67 seats out of total 70.
Mr. Kejriwal also took on the NDA government on issues of black money, Swacch Bharat, Yoga Abhiyan and farmer’s welfare. “I can say that not even a single lane would have been cleaned yet under this 100 crore Swacch Bharat Abhiyan”, charged Mr. Kejriwal.
He also flayed the central government on the issue of power supply in Delhi. “There are two models of government running in Delhi today — Central government model and Delhi government model”, he said.
Earlier, when he reached Patna on Thursday, morning angry protesters, who claimed to be supporters of Anna Hazare, showed black flags to him at the Patna airport.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar recalled his government’s journey from the weekly janata durbar to the recent move of the state government for the grievance redressal of the common people as their “right”.
“I too was a social activist like Mr Kejriwal but in 1977 I came into active politics”, said Mr Kumar while elaborating several of his government’s welfare steps for the common people of the state.
Meanwhile, the political observers of the state told The Hindu that Mr. Kejriwal’s visit to Bihar was a part of a political move of Nitish Kumar to woo the floating votes in his favour in the upcoming assembly poll.
“The Bihar poll might be held during festival time and a large number of migrant people would come to the state during that time and they could play significant ole in influencing votes in favour a party”, said political analyst Nawal Kishore Choudhury.
However, the Bihar Congress, an ally of Nitish Kumar, has expressed their unhappiness over Mr. Kumar sharing dais with Mr. Kejriwal.
Sources in the ruling party told The Hindu that Mr. Kejriwal might also be invited for the poll campaign in Bihar by the ruling party. “But, how the upright Arvind Kejriwal would share dais with Lalu Prasad and Congress leaders, alliance partners of Nitish Kumar could be interesting to see”, a young voter, Rajesh Kumar said.
