Birthdays, anniversaries and marriages often become ideal occasions for politicos to leave aside their ideological and political differences. In a gesture of courtesy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today wished Congress President Rahul Gnadhi, who turns 48 on Tuesday. Taking to twitter, PM Modi posted: “Birthday greetings to Congress President Shri @RahulGandhi”. PM Modi also prayed for Gandhi’s “long and healthy life”. Gandhi, who was born on 19 June, 1970, has been critical of PM Modi over an array of issues and is considered to be one of the challengers to the Prime Minister’s post in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Gandhi had yesterday launched a scathing attack on PM Modi accusing him of turning “a blind eye to the anarchy” and nudging “chaos and disorder” in Delhi. He was referring to the stalemate in Delhi where Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as well as the BJP are staging competing sit-ins. “People of Delhi are the victims, as this drama plays out,” Gandhi said on Twitter.
Yesterday, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy had met Gandhi at his residence and greeted him ahead of his birthday. Kumaraswamy was accompanied by JD-S secretary general Danish Ali, while AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Congress, K C Venugopal, too was present during the meeting. JD-S sources termed it as a ‘courtesy visit’ during which the Congress chief assured the new Congress-JDS government in the state of his full support, according to a report.
The Congress and the JD-S have formed the new Karnataka government in a post-poll tie-up after the BJP failed to get a majority of its own. The BJP’s BS Yeddyurappa was briefly sworn in as chief minister but had to tender his resignation after he failed to prove his majority.
Prasanta Patnaik 
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