Union Home Amit Shah and BJP president J.P. Nadda addressed five election rallies in Bihar on May 26 in support of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidates. Mr. Shah addressed meetings in Karakat and Sasaram Lok Sabha seats whereas Mr. Nadda campaigned in Ara, Jehanabad and Nalanda parliamentary constituencies.
Both leaders slammed the regime of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and accused the INDIA (India National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance) bloc leaders of giving the reservation to the Muslims.
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Mr. Shah’s rally in Karakat in support of NDA candidate Upendra Kushwaha came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed an election rally for the same cause.
“In this election, at one side there is the INDIA bloc which has committed a scam and corruption worth ₹12 lakh crore. On the other hand, Modi ji is the one who has not been accused of even a single penny despite being the Chief Minister and Prime Minister for 23 years. On one side, there is Rahul Gandhi who was born with a silver spoon and on the other hand, there is Modi ji who was born in the house of a tea seller from a very backward society,” Mr. Shah said.
Praising the Prime Minister, Mr. Shah said that he had decided that his government would not allow the reservation of SC-ST-OBC (Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes) to be touched.
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“Lalu ji says that Muslims should get 100% reservation. This arrogant alliance gave reservation to Muslims in Bengal, Karnataka and Hyderabad. Today, I want to say that wherever they have given reservation to Muslims, they have given it by reducing the reservation of backward classes. Lalu ji and Rahul Baba talk about the poor, I want to ask them that Lalu ji was the Chief Minister for 15 years and Minister at the Centre for 10 years, four generations of Rahul Baba ruled the country, but what did they do for the poor?” Mr. Shah said.
Blaming the left parties for naxalism, Mr. Shah said Mr. Modi took punitive action against Maoists and eliminated the movement. However, if there was the slightest mistake and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) came to power, then naxalism would rise again.
“If you want to stop the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), then you have only one option — Modi ji,” Mr. Shah said.
The Grand Alliance in Bihar has fielded CPI (ML) candidate Rajaram Singh in Karakat seat.
‘Strong vs weak government’
While campaigning for BJP candidate Shivesh Ram in Sasaram, Mr. Shah claimed that this election was between those who shot at the devotees of Ram and those who built the Ram temple.
Mr. Nadda, on the other hand, while addressing an election rally in Ara in support of BJP candidate R.K. Singh, said that before 2014, there was a weak government but the situation was different today.
“What is the difference between a helpless and a strong government? When terrorists spread terror in this country, the helpless government used to send dossiers to Pakistan but as a strong government, we responded to it by sending our soldiers to Pakistan for incidents like Uri and Pulwama,” Mr. Nadda said.
Lashing out at RJD, he asserted that the Opposition party, which had ruled the State for 15 years, wanted to take Bihar back to the lantern era.
“In the last 10 years, Modi ji has not only ruled the country as Prime Minister, he has changed the culture, definition and working style of Indian politics,“ Mr. Nadda said.
Later, while addressing rallies in Jehanabad and Nalanda, Mr. Nadda said that earlier, under Indira Awas Yojana, only two houses were available in one Panchayat but in Modi’s government provided concrete houses to four crore poor people under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
In Ara, Mr. Singh was up against CPI (ML) L candidate Sudama Prasad, whereas in Jehanabad, sitting MP of Janata Dal (United) Chandeshwar Prasad Chandravansi was contesting against RJD’s Surendra Prasad Yadav. In Nalanda, JD(U)‘s Kaushlendra Kumar was locked in a direct contest against CPI (ML) L’s Sandeep Saurabh.
In the last phase of Lok Sabha poll, a total of eight seats of Bihar will poll on June 1.
