NDA will get two-third majority in Bihar under Nitish Kumar: Amit Shah

PATNA: Union home minister Amit Shah reiterated on Sunday that the three-party NDA combine in Bihar would go to the forthcoming state assembly elections in October-November under the leadership of JD(U) national president and CM Nitish Kumar with the eyes set on winning the two-thirds majority in the 243-member House.
Shah, thereby, also cleared confusions on that count, as conflicting viewpoint had been aired by LJP president Chirag Paswan recently that BJP alone would decide the NDA’s CM face for the assembly elections.
From the BJP’s national headquarters, Shah addressed the BJP’s first ‘virtual rally’, christened ‘Bihar Jan Samvad’, through Facebook and YouTube platforms and 1,000 TV sets to party leaders, workers and sympathizers down to the 72,723 polling booths in state. However, Shah repeatedly denied that his address was akin to sounding of the BJP’s poll bugle and, instead, dubbed the event as the party’s mass contact programme tipped to be held in other states also as sustained exercise.
He mockingly described those who thought otherwise as people with ‘vakradrishti’ (squinted eyes) and also put other critics as those who believed in the politics of ‘parivar’ (family) -- a clear allusion to RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and also to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Shah took the name of Rahul on two occasions, but ignored to mention either Tejashwi or his father Lalu, except obliquely.
In his 45-minute speech, Shah also set up the six-year achievements of PM Modi and the “15-year NDA rule” in the state under the leadership of Nitish as the ruling combine’s two main poll planks for the coming assembly elections. He, in fact, articulated it as the 15-year NDA rule (2005-20) versus 15-year RJD or Lalu-Rabri rule (1990-2005).
“Bihar has traversed from the ‘lalten’ (lantern) era to the LED era, from lumpen order to law and order, from ‘baahubal (muscle power)’ to ‘vikaas bal (development power)’, from ‘chaaraa ghotaalaa (fodder scam) to DBT (direct benefit transfer) and from lathi and loot to law and order,” he said.
He dwelt at length on the developmental initiatives and achievements made under PM Modi and in Bihar under the stewardship of Nitish.
In the backdrop of coronavirus pandemic, he said, “Disasters had hit the country in the past also, but governments alone fought against them. It is for the first time in the country that the government and the people have been fighting coronavirus pandemic together. Also, I have not seen any PM other than Lal Bahadur Shastri on whose call the country responded as one.”
Shah said PM Modi and the Centre were touched by the plight and hardships of the migrant workers, but the railways started Shramik trains for their return from May 1 only after the state governments had established their quarantine centres. He also referred to the money spent separately by the Centre and the state governments to mitigate the problems faced by the migrants, besides the Rs20 lakh crore package for the country a part of which would also benefit Bihar’s fishery, honey, dairy and MSME sectors, as well as its makhana cultivation in clusters. Shah also gave the statistical details regarding the utilization of Rs1.25 lakh crore package for the state that PM Modi had announced in August 2015.
Referring to the national glory achieved under PM Modi, Shah said India, by organizing one each of surgical strike and air strike against the terror elements in Pakistan, had shown to the world that the country would not compromise with its national security like Israel.
Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi (SuMo) and party president Dr Sanjay Kumar Jaiswal, while addressing the virtual rally, also made frontal attack on Tejashwi. “Biharis are poor, but they are not beggars, nor are they thieves and criminals,” SuMo said, countering the assertions earlier made by Tejashwi, who, citing a letter issued by the police headquarters to the districts, had alleged that the state government deemed the migrant worker returnees to the state as thieves and criminals against whom the police machinery should remain alert.
“Those who have been speaking on behalf of the poor and migrant workers have only been shedding crocodile tears. They (read Lalu and Rabri Devi) had an opportunity to work for the poor, but gobbled up the fodder meant for the animals (read fodder scam),” he said.