This Article is From Aug 16, 2019

"Thank You, Sir": Twitter Exchange Between PM Modi, Arvind Kejriwal

Arvind Kejriwal was also wished by his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee on his birthday.

'Thank You, Sir': Twitter Exchange Between PM Modi, Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal thanked PM Modi for his birthday wishes.

New Delhi:

On Arvind Kejriwal's birthday today, his exchange with Prime Minister Narendra Modi was another sign of never-before bonhomie first seen when the Delhi Chief Minister came out in support of the government's radical move to end special status to Jammu and Kashmir. 

This morning, PM Modi tweeted birthday wishes to Mr Kejriwal, who turned 51.

"Birthday greetings to Delhi CM Shri @ArvindKejriwal. Praying for his good health and long life," PM Modi tweeted, tagging the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief.

"Thank u so much PM sir for ur good wishes (sic)," Mr Kejriwal replied to the Prime Minister's tweet.

The newfound goodwill has drawn much attention ahead of elections in Delhi next year. In the 2015 polls, AAP had won 67 of the 70 assembly seats, leaving only three for the BJP and zero for the Congress. The BJP swept all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in the national election earlier this year. 

Last week, Mr Kejriwal had surprised many when he backed the central government's Kashmir decisions and had his party MPs vote in favour of them in parliament.

As birthday greetings poured in on social media, Mr Kejriwal was also wished by his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee. "Thank u so much Didi," replied the former bureaucrat who started AAP in Delhi in 2012, and went on to become Chief Minister after his party's smashing poll debut.

Before joining politics, Arvind Kejriwal was an income tax officer of the Indian Revenue Service. He is a mechanical engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

Mr Kejriwal received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2006 for his anti-corruption work using the Right to Information Act.

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