'Insult to Sun god, PM' takes centre stage in campaigning; Modi, Shah, Rahul raise Bihar poll heat

Patna, Oct 30 (PTI) Poll-bound Bihar experienced scalding political temperature on Thursday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was assisted by cabinet colleagues Amit Shah and Jagat Prakash Nadda in launching a multi-pronged attack on the opposition INDIA bloc.

Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, who had launched his campaign in the state a day ago, was back in Bihar to address a couple of solo election meetings in constituencies contested by the Congress.

He had, on Wednesday, held two joint rallies with RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, the INDIA bloc’s chief ministerial candidate.

Gandhi was flayed by Modi at back-to-back rallies in Muzaffarpur and Saran districts, where the Prime Minister, without mentioning the former Congress president by name, accused him of "insulting Chhathi Maiya", the deified form of Bihar’s most popular festival.

The Congress leader had dubbed a “drama” Modi’s plan to take a dip in the Yamuna river in Delhi on the occasion of Chhath Puja, and mocked the 75-year-old Prime Minister, alleging, “he will do anything, even dance, perform Bharatnatyam, on the stage if it could fetch him votes”.

Modi also accused the RJD-Congress combine of “protecting infiltrators”, an apparent jibe at the opposition’s strident criticism of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, which was undertaken in Bihar much before the same was ordered by the Election Commission for other parts of the country.

The PM also sought to drive a wedge between the opposition allies, likening Congress and RJD to “oil and water” and suspecting that the grand old party was out to inflict “as much damage as possible” on its regional ally, with which its recent feud over seat-sharing arrangements had made “the biggest news”.

Shah, who is a former BJP national president, addressed as many as four rallies during the day, lambasting Gandhi for his comments about “Chhathi Maiya”, accusing him of lacking an appreciation of Indian sensibilities because his “maternal roots are in Italy”.

Similar sentiments were expressed by Nadda, the current BJP president, who claimed Gandhi’s denigration of the holy festival and the Prime Minister, “a high constitutional office”, called into question the “values and upbringing” of the Congress leader.

Nadda also chided the opposition for “claiming to be saviours of the Constitution, but threatening to tear away and throw in the dustbin the amendments to the Waqf Act, which have been passed by Parliament”.

Notably, the INDIA bloc has announced in its manifesto that if voted to power, it will not allow implementation of the amended Act in the state, but ensure “greater transparency in management of Waqf properties”.

Gandhi, who addressed rallies in Nalanda and Sheikhpura districts, continued to dare Modi to refute US President Donald Trump, who has been repeatedly claiming that the military conflict with Pakistan a few months ago was halted under American pressure.

The Congress leader also reiterated the charge that Modi was serving the interests of big business houses, and that the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar was being “run through remote control”, from Delhi, the national capital, and Nagpur, the headquarters of RSS, the BJP’s parent organisation.

Nitish Kumar spent the day canvassing in Begusarai, Munger and Sheikhpura districts while Tejashwi Yadav, his principal challenger and INDIA bloc's chief ministerial candidate, was in Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur.

Academician-turned-political activist Yogendra Yadav was in Patna to campaign for Divya Gautam, the CPI(ML) Liberation candidate from Digha assembly seat.

Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh, whose party is contesting the Bihar assembly polls for the first time, held a roadshow in Begusarai and urged the people to defeat the BJP, which, he alleged, deserved to be called “Bharatiya Jhutha (liar) Party”.

Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, whose AIMIM is contesting 32 seats of the 243-strong assembly in Bihar, continued his campaign in the state for the third consecutive day, with rallies in different constituencies of Purnea district.

The day also saw the first major incident of election-related violence in Mokama, about 100 kms from the state capital, where Dular Chand Yadav, a gangster-turned-politician, was killed in a clash with one of the rivals of his nephew, who is contesting the poll on a ticket of Jan Suraaj Party. PTI TEAM NAC BDC