Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday signed off his Bihar leg of election campaign at Paliganj, 60 kms from Patna, exuding confidence that he would return as the Prime Minister for a second term and swore to unleash a stream of developmental projects to propel the nation’s growth, through progress of the country’s eastern region.

“I have come to thank the people for their overwhelming support in the previous six phases of elections, which made the poll outcome known by the end of fourth-fifth phase. I bow my head before you with respect. Some people are still busy calculating caste arithmetic in Delhi, but the people have given their verdict.The NDA team in Bihar is more capable than me and they often said I need not bother about Bihar, but being a ‘karyakarta’, I have to slog as other BJP workers do, even in the hot weather,” PM Modi said.

Attacking the opposition for “stitching an alliance of negativism”, he said the people of India had “poured water over their dreams of forming a ‘majboor’ (helpless) government at the Centre, so that they could carry on with their loot, even at the cost of national security and development.”

“Earlier governments gave lip service during terror attacks. But we said we could not bear with it anymore. Your chowkidar gave a free hand to security forces who entered enemy territory to attack terror camps. Terrorists do not deserve to be dealt with leniently. They needed a stern response.”

Terming the opposition alliance as ‘mahavilavati’, he said that they had only two objectives – to tarnish the image of Modi and to somehow remove him. “They don’t know that Modi is here due to the blessings of 130 crore people of India. I have remained CM and PM for almost two decades and I have always seen God in people. But some greedy people eye this post to carry out loot in the interest of self and family.”

Modi said if the opposition had any concerns for the poor and needy, their hands would have trembled before resorting to corrupt means. “But they treat the poor only as a vote bank. The walls around them are so big that they cannot see the pain and problems of the poor. Having usurped hundreds of acres of land, they now find land slipping from under their feet. They got an opportunity to serve Bihar, but could offer only a bad name to the state. hey are still on the lookout for another opportunity to plunder Bihar’s wealth, but the people have become smart and can read their design,” Modi said, in a veiled attack on the RJD government of the past.

Modi also said that the party that did politics in the name of caste to amass huge wealth fooled its own caste members. “All they did was to mislead the youth from their own caste. Bihar is changing and so is the nation. When it comes to nation, it is India first for everyone. Other things come later.”

Listing out the pro-poor work done during his tenure as PM, such as ensuring constitutional status for the OBC commission, PM Kisan Yojana, Ayushman Bharat, cheapest internet for youth technological changes, plan to double farmers’ income by linking agriculture and solar energy production etc., Modi said those who identified themselves with the cattle-rearing class never found time to think about their welfare. “Now, we are offering them the Kisan credit card. We also have plans for fishermen, who have been neglected for far too long.”

Aware of the strong Yadav population in the two Patna constituencies of Patna Sahib and Pataliputra and neighbouring Jehanabad, the PM made special mention of Yaduvanshis, as he had done in 2015.

“I have come from Gujarat, the land of Yaduvanshi ‘Sudarshan Chakradhari’ Krishna. Our inspiration is the butter-loving Bal Gopal and flute playing Kanhaiya. Whenever required, India will draw inspiration from the ‘Sudarshan Chakradhari’ to teach terrorists a lesson.”

First Published: May 16, 2019 01:13 IST