In election season, JD(U) reaches out to AAP, Nitish Kumar meets Arvind Kejriwal

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The sources added that while they are certain that Kejriwal would not put up any AAP candidate in the election, which is due in September-October, they were not sure about how Kejriwal would formulate his support for Nitish, given that the JD(U) has tied up with Lalu Prasad’s RJD. “The ascendance of Kejriwal in politics is rooted in the anti-corruption plank and he cannot obviously identify himself with either Lalu Prasad or the Congress,” sources said.

While Lalu is a convict in a corruption case and cannot contest the election, Kejriwal had targeted the Congress over a string of scams.

The JD(U) had signalled its willingness to support AAP, with party president Sharad Yadav addressing a meeting in favour of Kejriwal in Varanasi during the Lok Sabha elections last year.

This year, during the Delhi Assembly elections, the JD(U) did not field any candidates and prevailed upon other members of the Janata Parivar not to do so unless they had a candidate with a fair chance of winning in an electorate that had a sizable chunk of voters from Bihar.

In Delhi, Kejriwal’s government is locked in a power struggle with the Lt Governor and Nitish’s support would bolster his base, sources said, given that the Bihar CM is seen by AAP as being “free of the baggage of corruption and casteism”.