Arrah/ Nawada, Nov 2: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday claimed that the Congress had been unwilling to accept Tejashwi Yadav as the INDIA bloc’s chief ministerial candidate and relented only after the RJD pointed a katta, an unlicensed country-made gun, at its head.
The PM made the statement on the campaign trail in Bihar, where he addressed back-to-back rallies in Bhojpur and Nawada districts, and highlighted the RJD’s reputation for alleged strong-arm tactics and its troubled equations with alliance partners.
“The Congress never wanted to announce the chief ministerial candidate in favour of the RJD. The RJD secured it by placing a katta on the head of the Congress. They have learnt their lessons in the school of ‘jungle raj’. Such elements can never do good for Bihar,” he alleged.
Modi said Congress wanted to defeat the RJD in the Bihar polls, and urged people to wait for the second phase of polling to be over on November 11 “to see them fighting”.
Without mentioning Congress leader Rahul Gandhi or Yadav by name, the PM said, “The crown prince of ‘jungle raj’ has been wary that the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ of the other ‘yuvraaj’ may be denting his own prospects. Hence, the RJD has put up its candidate against the state president of the Congress. Let the polls be over. The two allies will be breaking each other’s heads.”
The allusion was to the reserved Kutumba seat, where the RJD had reportedly planned to field a candidate against sitting MLA and state Congress president Rajesh Kumar. Although the RJD decided against doing so, the two allies have ended up in “friendly fights” at a number of places.
The PM also predicted a “record victory” for the ruling NDA, which would continue providing a government that was “upright” and “foresighted” and build a “developed Bihar” that was necessary for “Viksit Bharat”.
“‘Jungle raj wallahs’ are set to get the worst drubbing in history. The people of Bihar have not forgotten the ‘jungle raj’,” the prime minister added.
Modi, who was visibly pleased with the huge turnouts, said, “Analysts sitting in Delhi, who are racking their brains over poll arithmetic, would do well to come here and experience for themselves which way the wind is blowing”.
He said the manifesto released by the NDA last week was honest and put forth a vision for the future, unlike the charter of promises of the INDIA bloc, which was “a dossier of lies”.
The PM also envisaged a future in which people of the state will not migrate under economic compulsions and “the youth of Bihar will work in Bihar and make their motherland proud”. (PTI)
