Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das has said that the 2019 elections were crucial for the growth of the country, so Bharatiya Janata Party workers should collectively work together to get the BJP government reinstated at the Centre.

Das was addressing a public meeting on Saturday at Shivaji Maidan in Daltonganj before proceeding for the filing of the nomination papers of Vishnu Dayal Ram, party candidate from the Palamu Lok Sabha seat. Addressing a large gathering of party workers and supporters, Ram asked them to spend at least two hours a day for the party to realise the objective of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’.

“Ours is a tried [and tested] leadership, while the opposition party candidates are like characters in TV serials who are replaced by fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters-in-law. In addition, they have lost the people’s mandate, while we have proved our mettle on several fronts,” Das said, to loud cheers from the crowd.

Without naming Rashtriya Janta Dal, Das said, “Such is the rivalry in the opposition that brothers are fighting in the neighbouring state. They are unreliable.” This was a reference to the family strife between Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav, the sons of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad.

After the public meeting, the CM accompanied VD Ram to the returning officer’s office to file the party candidate’s nomination papers for Palamu. Ram is the sitting MP of this constituency.

Jharkhand health minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi, BJP legislators Radha Krishna Kishore, Alok Chaurasia, senior party leaders including Shyamnarayan Dubey and BJP’s Palamu district unit chief Narendra Pandey were among those present.

First Published: Apr 07, 2019 11:38 IST