On a day of mild rains, Bihar deluged by poll campaign

Patna, Oct 29 (PTI) On a day when most parts of Bihar witnessed mild rainfall, the state was deluged by canvassing for assembly polls from the NDA and INDIA bloc on Wednesday, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah leading the charge for their respective alliances.

Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, addressed two joint rallies with RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, who has been named the INDIA bloc’s chief ministerial candidate.

The Congress leader mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that “he would even dance at election rallies if voters said they would vote for him in exchange”.

The remark drew a sharp response from Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the BJP’s in-charge for elections in the state, who accused Gandhi of displaying a “feudal” mindset.

Pradhan also lambasted Gandhi and his “shagird” (disciple) Yadav for claiming that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who heads the JD(U), was no more in control and his government was being run by the BJP “through remote control”.

Shah addressed three back-to-back rallies, rubbishing the opposition’s claim that the NDA was having second thoughts on continuing with Kumar as the CM.

The home minister also made it clear that “there is no vacancy for the posts of the prime minister, and the chief minister in Bihar, with both Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar firmly in the saddle”.

The day also saw Defence Minister Rajnath Singh hitting the campaign trail with three rallies. Singh’s remark that Modi represented “the vision of Jawaharlal Nehru” and, hence, a victory for the NDA will be “a befitting tribute” to the first PM attracted a lot of limelight.

Singh underscored that November 14, the birth anniversary of Nehru, is also the date when votes for the Bihar assembly polls will be counted.

Also on the campaign trail was Yogi Adityanath, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, who is often regarded as a Hindutva hardliner. Yogi tore into the RJD, accusing its founding president Lalu Prasad of having committed the “sin” of “stopping the chariot of Lord Ram.

The allusion was to the arrest of Lal Krishna Advani in 1990, when Prasad was the chief minister of Bihar and the BJP patriarch was passing through Samastipur, taking out a ‘Ram Rath Yatra’. The development had caused the V P Singh government at the Centre to fall, with the BJP withdrawing support, even though it earned the RJD supremo popularity among Muslims, which he continues to enjoy till date.

Others who campaigned in the poll-bound state included Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, whose statement on “lantern” (RJD’s poll symbol) being responsible for “lack of development in Bihar” was, oddly, construed as a criticism of the Nitish Kumar government by the Congress and its ally Shiv Sena (UBT).

Rallies were also held by AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi in Kishanganj, Bihar’s lone district where Muslims are in a majority. The Hyderabad MP has been touring the state since Tuesday, when he had criticised Amit Shah for repeatedly raising the “ghuspaitiya” (infiltrator) bogey, alleging that it was a dog whistle against the minority community.

“If there is an infiltrator, she is sitting in Delhi. You welcomed her like you would your own sister, after she was driven out of Bangladesh,” Owaisi had said, in an indirect reference to Sheikh Hasina, the neighbouring country’s former PM.

On Thursday, political temperatures would continue to soar with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two rallies, in Muzaffarpur and Saran districts.

Rahul Gandhi, too, would be back for rallies in Nalanda and Sheikhpura districts, while Amit Shah, who has stayed back in Patna, has four election meetings scheduled in various parts of the state. PTI TEAM NAC RBT