‘What JD(U) Minister did was an insult to JP’

Narendra Modi said that until the BJP was part of the Bihar government "no sting operation happened."

October 13, 2015 12:54 am | Updated November 16, 2021 03:54 pm IST - PATNA:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi particularly exhorted the young Bihari voters to cast their votes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi particularly exhorted the young Bihari voters to cast their votes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed two poll meetings in Bihar on Monday, as 49 seats went to the polls in the first phase of the Assembly elections, and criticised the JD(U) and the RJD over a video purporting to show a senior JD(U) Minister accepting a bribe. Mr. Modi demanded the disclosure of the names of the five other ministers mentioned in the video.

“They claim to be the disciples of Jayaprakash Narayan; but on his 113th birth anniversary, what they did, what their ministers did…it was an insult to JP,” Mr. Modi said at meetings in Jehanabad and Bhabhua. “Where will you go if this money game goes on? Will you be able to give Rs. 4 lakh to anyone?”

On Sunday night, Minister for Registration, Excise, Prohibition and Urban Development Awadhesh Prasad Kushwaha was caught on camera taking Rs. 4 lakh in bribe from a fake Mumbai businessman. When the video went viral on social media, Mr. Nitish Kumar asked Mr. Kushwaha to resign. His nomination from Pipra was cancelled.

Mr. Modi said that until the BJP was part of the Bihar government “no sting operation happened.” “But ever since this gentleman [Chief Minister Nitish Kumar] joined hands with the other gentleman [Mr. Lalu Prasad], such things [like bribery] started happening and it would continue to happen as the new partner [Mr. Lalu Prasad] is widely known for this… Even the court has put its stamp on him. It’s unfortunate that people are taking bribe in the name of JP…I appeal to you to finish them in the poll,” he said.

In Jehanabad, Mr. Modi sought to remind the voters of Jagdeo Prasad, a veteran backward caste leader of the region, who was mysteriously killed in 1974. “I’d like to ask both Mr. Lalu Prasad and Mr. Nitish Kumar how they are sitting with those who had killed the leader who stood up for the poor,” he said in an oblique reference to the Congress, which was then in power in the State.

He said that in the ongoing polls, only two things mattered. “We keep saying vote us to power for development as Bihar’s development is our only goal, and they keep saying destroy Modi. Democracy is not to finish someone but to fulfil the expectations of the poor people…”

As for the RJD’s demand that the Election Commission cancel his poll meeting in Bhabhua, Mr. Modi said: “They want to stop me, but in democracy you cannot throttle the voice of anyone… You don’t know Modi… I’m a labourer. I can even set out on foot to meet people.”

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