Gopalganj (Bihar): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday sounded the bugle for Bihar assembly polls due later this year, urging the people to strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by voting the BJP-led NDA back to power.
Addressing a rally in Gopalganj, a stronghold of the RJD, Shah also charged the opposition party’s president Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi, both of whom had together ruled the state for 15 years, with running a “jungle raj”, alleging that murders, kidnappings and dacoities became an industry in the state while they were in power.
It was the first public meeting addressed by Shah, regarded as the BJP’s principal strategist, in Bihar since last year’s Lok Sabha polls.
“Major businessmen fled the state, worried about their own safety. Lalu also made Bihar infamous the world over because of his involvement in the fodder scam,” Shah claimed.
The Union minister said things began to improve when the BJP, in alliance with JD(U) headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, formed a government in the state.
If the NDA returns to power later this year, Bihar’s decades-old problem of annual floods will become a thing of the past, he said.
“The people of Bihar have a choice to make between the Lalu-Rabri duo, representing the jungle raj, and development under Modi and Nitish,” said the former BJP president.
“I hope you all will press the lotus button, in the assembly polls later this year and vote for the BJP-led NDA. The people of Bihar have always shown their affection for Modi. I am sure you will strengthen his hands further,” he said.
Shah had interacted with senior party leaders in the state capital late Saturday night when he is said to have remarked that a victory in Bihar has a far-reaching impact and “we must strive to win the assembly polls”.
Shah pulled no punches in lambasting the RJD supremo for alleged nepotism, accusing him of making his wife the chief minister, getting his daughter elected to Parliament and “now both his sons want to become the CM”.
Shah made no explicit mention of Prasad’s younger son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav, in line with the BJP’s strategy of treating the 35-year-old as a man of little consequence, but for his father.
The strategy first became apparent through a “leaked” video of state BJP leaders a few months ago in which they were seen discussing the need to train their guns only at Lalu, in contrast with the stance adopted till Lok Sabha polls which saw repeated “jungle raj ke yuvraaj” (Prince of the jungle raj) jibes from the Prime Minister himself.
In his speech at Gopalganj, Shah tore into the “messiah of the downtrodden” image that Prasad has crafted for himself over decades, saying: “One who eats up fodder meant for cattle can do nothing for the poor”.
The ailing septuagenarian was also attacked by Shah for his alleged failure to secure for Bihar what was its due during the 10-year-long Congress-led UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh, despite being a key ally.
The Union home minister also charged the RJD supremo with “setting up a record of scams” and read out a list of alleged financial scandals involving Prasad, from his stint as the CM in the 1990s to his tenure as the railway minister in the UPA1 government.
Shah also spoke of the Centre’s intent to build “a grand temple” at the birthplace of Goddess Sita in Bihar, on the lines of the Ram Janmabhoomi at Ayodhya in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.
The rally at Gopalganj was preceded by a function at Patna, earlier in the day, when Shah shared the stage with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to launch central and state projects worth over Rs 8,000 crore.
His two-day tour of Bihar will conclude with a meeting of NDA leaders at the residence of Kumar.
Besides BJP and JD(U), the NDA in Bihar includes Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Hindustani Awam Morcha, headed by Union ministers Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi respectively, besides Rashtriya Lok Morcha of Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwaha.
Shah meets NDA leaders at Nitish Kumar’s residence
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday discussed the strategy for assembly polls, due later this year, with NDA partners in the state.
The meeting was held at 1, Anne Marg, the official residence of the chief minister, who heads the JD(U) and will run for a fifth consecutive term in office in the forthcoming elections.
Shah, who had earlier shared the stage with Kumar at a function where central and state projects worth more than Rs 8,000 crore were launched, reached the CM’s house after addressing a BJP rally in Gopalganj.
The JD(U) supremo received the former BJP president with a bouquet and the two leaders sat at the head table, in the conference room where the meeting took place.
Union minister Chirag Paswan, who heads the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), briefly spoke to journalists after the meeting.
“The discussions focused on how to strengthen the coalition in the run-up to the elections”, said the Hajipur MP, whose party is expected to demand a “respectable” share in the assembly polls, citing its brilliant performance in the Lok Sabha elections.
Currently, Paswan’s party has no representation in the state assembly but in last year’s Lok Sabha elections, the LJP(RV) won all the five seats it contested, with comfortable margins.
Paswan, whose own political stock has risen since he won by close to two lakh votes a seat his late father Ram Vilas Paswan had represented multiple times, downplayed the meeting at CM’s residence lasting for “just a few minutes”.
He insisted “it was over quickly because there were no thorny issues on the agenda”.
Besides senior leaders of the JD(U) and the BJP, including state ministers, the meeting was attended by Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who heads the Hindustani Awam Morcha, and Rajya Sabha MP Upendra Kushwaha, who is the founding president of Rashtriya Lok Morcha.
Although Kumar has been the NDA’s “face” in Bihar for nearly two decades, speculations are rife that the BJP may have second thoughts this time, in view of the JD(U) supremo’s rumoured ill health.
Kumar, whose past track record of abrupt exits from the NDA keeps the BJP on tenterhooks, has been maintaining that he was back for good.
