Making a last-minute push in Bihar a day before campaigning ends for the first phase of polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday appealed to voters to bring the NDA back to power and targeted the Opposition Mahagathbandhan.
PM Modi, who addressed rallies in Katihar and Saharsa districts in the Kosi-Seemanchal region, claimed that the Opposition alliance’s CM candidate Tejashwi Prasad Yadav was trying to “hide the sins” of his father and former CM Lalu Prasad, relegating his pictures to the corner of the RJD’s election posters. Modi did not mention the father-son duo by their names but used the expression “jungle raj ke yuvraaj (crown prince of lawlessness)” to refer to Tejashwi.
He also targeted the “royal families” of the Congress and the RJD, alleging they were fond of visiting various places abroad and celebrating foreign festivals, but called Chhath Puja a “drama” and did not find the time to visit the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The dig was seen as an indirect reference to videos of Lalu in which he was celebrating Halloween with his grandkids.
“What are the sins of the so-called tall leader, synonymous with jungle raj, that the crown prince is trying to hide?” asked the PM, not mentioning anyone.
Responding to the PM’s remarks later in the day, Tejashwi told reporters, “The PM should give up talking rubbish and tell the 14 crore people of Bihar what he has done for them.” His elder sister and Pataliputra MP Misa Bharti said, “Who says there is no poster of Lalu Prasad around? Does the PM come to Bihar only to keep a count of posters put up by the RJD? He would do better to talk about more substantial things.”
In his speeches, the PM raised the matter of “infiltration” in the Seemanchal region, which has a sizable population of Muslims, alleging that the RJD and Congress had hatched a “dangerous conspiracy” to “upset the demographic balance by encouraging infiltration”.
“I want to bring to the people’s notice a dangerous conspiracy that the RJD and the Congress are involved in, in Katihar and in adjoining districts like Araria and Purnea… This Seemanchal region has been like a prahari (sentinel) for our culture and civilisation. But the RJD and Congress have been trying to upset the demographic balance here for the sake of a few votes.”
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Modi reiterated that the Congress agreed to name Tejashwi the CM candidate when the RJD “put a katta (country-made gun) on its head”.
In a message to first-time voters, the PM said, “Your vote is going to strengthen the NDA government. And that is why all young sons and daughters who are voting for the first time, I urge them: this time your vote should be the one that contributes to the formation of an NDA government…”
Amit Shah, meanwhile, addressed public meetings in Sitamarhi and Madhubani, where he spoke of an airport in Mithila, the establishment of the Makhana Board, and an AIIMS coming up in the region. Shah also raised the “infiltration” issue in his speeches, labelling the “Voter Adhikar Yatra” that Leader of Opposition and Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi had organised in August as the “Ghuspaithiya Bachao Yatra (Save the infiltrators Yatra)”.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath said the INDIA alliance has “three monkeys — Pappu, Tappu and Appu”. He was targeting Rahul, Tejashwi and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. “Pappu cannot speak the truth, Tappu cannot see good aspects, and Appu cannot hear the truth,” he said in Darbhanga. —PTI Inputs
