Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the election campaign for the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar at a meeting in Muzaffarpur on Saturday, where he is expected to announce measures for the State’s development and launch projects. A dozen rebel MLAs of the Janata Dal (United), who were expelled from the party, are likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party at the “Parivartan rally” (a rally for change).
Union Minister Ananth Kumar, who is overseeing the party’s election work in the State, said the rally would mark the launch of Mr. Modi’s election campaign. Senior BJP leader Sushil Modi said the Prime Minister would unveil a special package of Rs. 50,000 crore for the State.
Before addressing the rally, Mr. Modi will inaugurate the campus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, at Bihta and attend a programme of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. He will launch several projects, including the Biharsharif-Daniyawan railway line and a bridge over the Ganga, and flag off a Patna-Mumbai express train. He may also announce a plan for reviving Vikramshila University and opening agricultural universities at Motihari and Nalanda.
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A day ahead, the Opposition raised a chorus of protest against the rally and the likely announcements.
The Congress staged a dharna in Patna, alleging that the BJP was “repackaging and rebranding the projects initiated by the previous governments”. “The people of Bihar will no longer tolerate Mr. Modi’s anti-Bihar attitude, and why has he kept silence on the charges of corruption against his Ministers and BJP leaders and Chief Ministers,” asked the former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, MP. Ashok Chaudhury, president of the party State unit, said: “What is objectionable is the way the BJP-led NDA leaders are branding the projects initiated by previous governments as their own projects to woo people in election time.”
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asked the people to remain vigilant as Mr. Modi might repackage projects initiated by the previous government. “The people of Bihar want to know what happened to Mr. Modi’s poll promise of special category status to Bihar,” he said.
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Bomb threat
Unprecedented security has been arranged in Patna and Muzaffarpur as the Intelligence Bureau has alerted the Bihar government and Special Protection Group officials camping in the State to a possible suicide attack on Mr. Modi, a senior official told a section of the media. The attack could be mounted by either terror outfits or Maoists active in north Bihar. Ahead of the Lok Sabha election in 2014, Mr. Modi’s rally in Patna on October 27, 2013, was rocked by several bomb blasts, leaving five persons dead and 100 injured.